Rain has forced Sunday's Sprint Cup series race at Watkins Glen to be postponed until Monday morning.
Despite a poor weather forecast showing imminent rain in the afternoon, NASCAR officials did everything in their power to get the race underway, first waiting for noon showers to cease, then attempting to dry the track as soon as the rain stopped.
Nearly three and a half hours after the scheduled starting time the rain returned however, hampering the officials' efforts and forcing them to postpone the race until Monday.
The new start time will be 10am US Eastern Time, earlier than usual even for rain-delayed events, as Monday's forecast isn't very good either.
Although NASCAR's second-tier series raced in the wet with rain tyres three years ago at Montreal, there is no plan for the Cup series to compete under such conditions.
Goodyear brought a rain tyre allocation to Watkins Glen, but only as a contingency plan for the Nationwide Series, whose personnel had a short window with their logistics before next week's event in Canada.
Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch will start tomorrow's race from pole position, beside Richard Petty's AJ Allmendinger.
Two years ago the race had to be postponed until Monday, running to its full distance with victory going to Tony Stewart for a record fifth time at the venue.
