The phrase “rain or shine” isn’t always the case. While all of you NASCAR fans were anxiously waiting to hear “Lady and gentlemen, start your engines”—Mother Nature had other plans. For the first time in history (54 years!) NASCAR postponed the Daytona 500 season-opener. The Sunday night racing was pushed to Monday night, because of rain. Although I can imagine the disappointment of die-hard fans, can you imagine being a NASCAR driver?
Drivers like Danica Patrick, Carl Edwards, and Tony Stewart were going through vigorous preparation for the Daytona 500, to be told that the event was being postponed had to have really shaken them up. Aside from the drivers, the delay also caused the media to go into a frenzy. Fox Sports Media is airing the race and is interested to see how Monday night ratings will compare to the original Sunday night time-slot.
From a media standpoint, the delay will most likely work in their favor. Just to put things into perspective--Fox drew a 4.5 overnight rating despite no on-track action during nearly four hours of air time. Fox filmed coverage in the rain, even when no racing was occurring. Why is this a good thing? Because the pre-racing coverage added even more anticipation for NASCAR fans. Here we go…
Tonight the engines can officially start at 7:00pm.
-Sarah Kirk
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