Rain at Daytona imperils start of Coke Zero 400

DAYTONA BEACH — News flash: It rains in the summer in Central Florida.

As bad weather rolled over Daytona International Speedway early Sunday night — shocking, right? — NASCAR officials maintained hope they could start the Coke Zero 400 sometime later into the night. #Wishfulthinking. There was a 60 percent of rain until 1 a.m.

Long before the 7:45 p.m. scheduled start, spectators ducked for cover underneath the grandstands while drivers scrambled back to their motorhomes to ride out the storms.

As the clock approached 9 p.m., the Air Titan jet dryers were on the track but had yet to rev up because it was still raining.

“There’s nothing you can do,” Brad Keselowski said. “At least it’s the same for everybody from that perspective. We’ll deal with it the best we can.”

“I’ll take a lot of naps. You try to be rested up because you don’t know how long it’s going to be.”

Keselowski and the other 42 Cup competitors hadn’t gotten in much drive-time this weekend. Qualifying for the race was canceled because of bad weather Saturday night. Because practice times set the grid, Dale Earnhardt Jr. ended up on the pole, with Austin Dillon set to start on the outside pole.

At least everyone is accustomed to the routine. Just a year ago, the race was postponed from Saturday night until Sunday morning because of bad weather.

Then after more thunderstorms on Sunday, NASCAR officials called the race after drivers had completed 112 of the 160 scheduled laps. Aric Almirola was declared the winner.

This year, the race was scheduled for prime time on Sunday night this year for broadcasting reasons — this was the first race of the NASCAR package under NBC, which replaced ESPN as one of NASCAR’s broadcasting partners.

But weather was only part of the Drama at Daytona.

The middle of the grandstands were under construction for the $400-million Daytona Rising renovation project. Race control and television broadcasters were pushed out to temporary booths on the Turn 1 side of the new tower under construction. The project will cut capacity from 146,000 to 101,500 with the removal of the backstretch grandstands.

“I really wasn’t prepared to see what I saw when I pulled in here,” Earnhardt Jr. said. ” My head exploded when I saw all those seats that weren’t there. So I wasn’t ready for that. I guess this was a longer project than I was led to believe. And when it is done, it will be an amazing, incredible thing. But for now it will be weird. Especially right there at the flag stand, there is nothing.”

Patience, sir.

“It is truly ‘pardon our dust,’ more significant than we’ve ever had,” track president Joie Chitwood said. “We knew that this event would be the most challenging. The middle of the property is truly construction. When they wave the green flag to start the race, there will be no fans visible in that area, so hopefully everyone can bear with us. We’re going to get through this event. Come January 2016 it will be perfect.”

Maybe by then the rains will subside, too.

“It will be odd but I guess it’s what you pay to get to where we want to be and for Daytona to build the facility they want to build and to give the fans the experience they want,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “It is just going to take some time and we just have to get through this weekend.”

gdiaz@tribune.com Read George Diaz’s blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/enfuego