I Wonder if NASCAR is Starting to Rethink Their California Schedule

When NASCAR first started coming to the California Speedway the race was usually in the Spring - April or May. The series then decided to give California a second race and changed the schedule so the tour would hit Fontana for the second race of the season in February and again on Labor Day weekend. At the time I heard the schedule announced I wondered if anyone at NASCAR ever looked at the weather in CA during February and Labor Day?

February is in the middle of California's rainy season (such as it is), and if there's a strong likelihood of rain anytime during the year, February is probably your best bet. True to form the heavy rains Thursday night and intermittent showers yesterday kept the cars off the track all day and canceled qualifying for all three divisions. Eight teams in the Sprint Cup division and a number of teams in the lower divisions made the trip to California for nothing and went home without even turning a single lap.

There are races in the Truck and Nationwide divisions today which they should be able to get in, depending on track conditions. The track was nearly dry yesterday afternoon but they were having trouble with "weepers" (not drivers who didn't make the race, but spots where water was welling up from underground and getting the track wet). Slick tires + 200 mph speeds + water on the track is not a good combination. The wall comes at you pretty fast.

To make matters worse another big storm is forecast for tonight with the possibility of showers all day Sunday. The local media is concerned that the movie stars might get wet at the Oscars, but sports fans are concerned that the Cup race will either get delayed until late (they have lights in Fontana), or may get bumped to Monday. (By the way, we visited Hollywood and the site of the Oscars one week ago today and you can see the slideshow here.)

Labor Day hasn't been terribly friendly to NASCAR either. Last year at race time on Sunday afternoon it was 107 degrees in Fontana - not a good thing for drivers or spectators alike. The year before it was 103. September also tends to be one of the smoggiest months around here and air quality in Fontana can be pretty bad. And believe it or not Labor Day can also have rain problems because that's the peak time of year for monsoonal thunderstorms which can form over the nearby mountains and drift back over Fontana.

I'm not sure there's enough fan support for two California races a year (I don't think they sell out either event), and certainly the prospect of bad weather doesn't help ticket sales. I know I won't attend the Labor Day race just because of the possibility of high temperatures, and February is a crapshoot because of rain. If you want to go to the February race you better plan to take Monday off too just in case the race has to be moved back a day.

UPDATE: They got the truck race in without a problem, but it started raining about 25 minutes into Cup practice and the Nationwide race is in danger of a rainout with a big blob of rain headed their way.