While the weather forecast for Sunday was suboptimal, there was hope that NASCAR could work in the Crayon 301 on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. That hope was short-lived, as NASCAR made the call at 10:45 AM ET on Sunday morning to pull the plug on attempting to run the race on Sunday afternoon.
The NASCAR Cup Series Crayon 301 will now be moved to Monday, July 17th at 12 PM (noon) ET.
USA Network will remain the television network that will broadcast the event. PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will remain the radio broadcast partners on Monday.
A mixture of rain, and severe weather in the area, which included tornado watches, coupled with an unforgiving weather radar for later in the day caused NASCAR to take action.
Sunday's postponement equates to the third-consecutive NASCAR Cup Series event that has been impacted by the weather. Last week's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway ended early due to rain with 75 laps remaining in the race.
The week prior, the Chicago Street Race was heavily delayed by the weather, and the race distance was eventually shortened due to darkness.
When the weather does clear, and the Crayon 301 goes green on Monday, Christopher Bell, who won this event a season ago, will roll from the pole position.
The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry topped 35 other hungry drivers, including his JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr. who will start second, in qualifying.
RELATED: NASCAR Cup Series Crayon 301 Starting Lineup
Aric Almirola, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Brad Keselowski, and Kyle Busch will makeup the remainder of the top 10 starters for Monday's race.
Busch, however, will drop to the rear before the green flag due to a crash during his Round 2 Qualifying run on Saturday. The No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team made repairs to their primary car after qualifying, which NASCAR considers unapproved adjustments.
Photo Credit: Ben Earp, NKP, Courtesy of Ford Performance
