Weather at Pocono has played havoc for the last few years and especially in 2016. In June, the Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 was moved to Monday because of rain that came through overnight and continued into Sunday. The race eventually was won by Kurt Busch, but it made for a tough week for teams who needed to quickly turn around for the next week’s action.
Unfortunately, the July race has been no different.
A rain shower in the morning caused all the rubber from the previous two days of action, both from the ARCA race, Camping World Trucks, and all the practice sessions, to be washed off.
Blue skies did appear during the afternoon but at the same time, another shower passed by at around 2:30 p.m. It was already an hour past when the race was scheduled to go green. Even with the track efforts to dry the surface, including both jet driers and the “Air Titan” system, the 2.5-mile triangle was going to take around three hours to dry. That would put the start into the late afternoon, and the Pocono Raceway is not equipped with lights.
So, NASCAR made the call at approximately 2:45 p.m. to postpone the Pennsylvania 400 to Monday, August 1, at 11 a.m. NBCSN will still have coverage.