Daytona 500 postponed until Monday at 4 p.m. due to rain

DAYTONA Beach front, Fla.  — The Daytona five hundred has been postponed by rain for the 1st time considering that 2012, dampening NASCAR’s season opener that started with a ballyhooed stop by from President Donald Trump.

The race was postponed soon after two prolonged delays totaling additional than a few several hours. The race will now begin at 4 p.m. Monday and be broadcast live on Fox.

It really is the 2nd time in sixty two yrs that “The Good American Race” will end on a Monday.

The 1st hold off of the day arrived times soon after the presidential motorcade finished a ceremonial parade lap about the 2 1/2-mile track. Trump’s armored limousine nicknamed “The Beast” exited Daytona Global Speedway, and the sky opened for a quick shower that forced drivers back to pit highway.

The start out currently had been pushed back thirteen minutes to accommodate Trump’s trip. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. inevitably led the field to the green flag and was out front for the 1st twenty laps ahead of heavier rain soaked a racing surface area that usually takes several hours to dry.

NASCAR known as drivers back to their cars about six:40 p.m. EST, hoping to get additional laps in ahead of additional showers strike again. Some drivers confirmed, but the heaviest rain of the day forced a postponement.

It no question choked some of the pleasure out of an function that had been a raucous celebration for several hours, some of it prompted by Trump’s spectacular entrance. 1000’s cheered as Air Power A single carried out a flyover and landed at Daytona Global Airport a several hundred yards behind the track. Trump’s motorcade arrived a several minutes afterwards, eliciting a different loud ovation. Both of those entrances were broadcast on big video boards about the superspeedway.

At the very least a dozen drivers were escorted from the pre-race conference to a personal introduction with Trump.

“I acquired to satisfy the president! How amazing is that?” driver Aric Almirola claimed.

Trump served as the grand marshal for the Daytona five hundred and gave the command for drivers to start out their engines. Trump, with 1st woman Melania Trump by his side, dealt with the crowd and known as the opener “a famous display of roaring engines, soaring spirits and the American ability, speed and electricity that we have been listening to about for so a lot of yrs.”

“For five hundred heart-pounding miles, these fierce competition will chase the checkered flag, combat for the Harley J. Earl trophy and make their engage in for pure American glory,” Trump claimed. “That’s what it is: pure, American glory.”

Trump and his wife then acquired in the limousine and turned a lap. They averted the higher-banked turns at Daytona and stayed on the apron via the corners.

The president’s stop by was broadly welcomed by NASCAR followers. Trump 2020 flags flooded the infield, and some followers wore them as capes in the garage area.

His existence also established huge strains at entrances, with a lot of followers complaining though waiting around several hours to get via protection.

Previous NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France, who was changed adhering to his August 2018 arrest on DUI expenses, was on Air Power A single with the president and 1st woman. They traveled from West Palm Beach front.

Among the all those who satisfied them at the airport: existing NASCAR chairman Jim France and fellow best executives Lesa France Kennedy and Ben Kennedy.