NASCAR: Sprint Cup race postponed due to rain

NASCAR • Kentucky's 400-mile event rescheduled for Sunday.

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Sparta, Ky. • Rain Saturday night forced NASCAR to postpone the Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway until Sunday.

The 400-mile event was rescheduled for Sunday at 10 a.m. MT. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start on the pole in a Chevy alongside Carl Edwards' Ford.

It was the circuit's first postponement since last year's season-opening Daytona 500. The marquee event ran the following night for the first time in its history.

Sunday's rescheduling creates the first day Cup race for the 1.5-mile oval after two events at night.

Showers were forecast all day around the state, which arrived around mid-afternoon with a heavy downpour followed by sporadic rain. NASCAR delayed the start and held out hope for a late start with jet driers on the track, but another band of rain led officials to postpone the race just after 9 p.m.

"We knew it would be touch-and-go and from early in the morning we were tracking the weather," NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said. "We dispatched the driers and they stayed out ahead of it, but the weather cells never did move out of the area and they looked like they would linger.

"It's a 90-minute to two-hour window with the best of conditions, and once it reached around 9 p.m. and it was still raining and in the forecast, we made the decision we thought was best."