Michigan rain underscores NASCAR's inflexibility

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Traffic was heavy on Monday morning, but not in the way you'd expect. The line of campers and recreational vehicles streamed down U.S. Highway 12, past the dairy bars and miniature golf courses and lakeside hotels of the Irish Hills. And all of them were heading away from Michigan International Speedway.

They were leaving behind a stark, dreary landscape of wet grandstand seats and muddy parking lots, and a 2-mile speedway beaten down by a second day of unrelenting rain. Driving into the infield, there were no parking attendants guiding the way to the barren media lot. There was only Jamie McMurray, his identity obscured by a hooded Crown Royal sweatshirt, walking a small Pekinese dog.

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And rain, which started falling Saturday evening and rarely let up, filling the often-checked weather radar with those nasty green blobs that signify flight changes and rental car extensions and digging to the bottom of the suitcase for any piece of clothing that seems remotely clean. Even as rain puddled around them, NASCAR officials were holding out hope that they'd have enough of a window to run at least half of the 3M Performance 400 on Monday. But the rain kept coming, forcing a second rescheduling, this one for 10 a.m. Tuesday -- where the chance of rain is an optimistic 30 percent.

But after the past few days in Brooklyn, nobody is assuming sunny skies. More rain Tuesday would raise the specter of having to race on Wednesday, which NASCAR will consider but isn't completely sure it can do. Series spokesman Ramsey Poston said running on Wednesday would require all of NASCAR's trucks and personnel to be shifted south to Bristol, Tenn., in record time. It would force television networks to rush the job of ripping up wires at one track and laying them at another. Everything is condensed by a short, furious week, featuring a Craftsman Truck event on Wednesday night and another Nextel Cup race Saturday.

And then there's the worst-case scenario, grabbing the snow shovels and digging out the 2-mile oval for a race postponed until the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which is where it could very well end up if Tuesday is washed out as well. Such a rescheduling would cause not only holiday headaches for everyone in the sport, but completely alter the dynamic of the Chase and bring severe consternation to those expecting to see a champion crowned at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 18.

Poston said by rule, the Chase field is determined after the first 26 races of the season, and the playoff comprises the final 10. A complete washout this week in Michigan means the Chase field wouldn't be set until New Hampshire, the champion would be crowned here rather than at Homestead, and NASCAR would be forced to return to a part of the world where the average November low is 31 degrees. Two years ago during Thanksgiving weekend, there was a blizzard here. Many of the speedway's infield facilities aren't heated. And you don't want to upstage the annual state high school cross-country championships, held on the racetrack grounds in November for the past 11 years.

"I think if you schedule it for that, and it snows that weekend and something happens, you can't come back," Kasey Kahne said. "I don't think you can schedule it that late up here. You get lucky or you don't get lucky, you never know. I don't care if it goes green and we get to lap 100 and it starts pouring again. Nobody wants to come back in November. Our season is long enough."

That much becomes evident the more the rain falls, forcing participants to sit in their motor homes playing Xbox rather than screaming around the track. Long, wet weekends like this one serve as a reminder of how NASCAR has boxed itself in with a bloated schedule that leaves little room for flexibility. Back in 1997, when an attempt to run a rain-postponed event at Talladega on a Monday was thwarted by rain, the schedule of 32 races and two exhibitions allowed for some wiggle room. No more. From July through November, it's crossing your fingers and hoping the weather holds out.

A Car of Tomorrow tire test scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at Atlanta Motor Speedway had to be scrapped. Nextel Cup drivers Mark Martin, Kyle Busch and Chad McCumbee have to be wondering when they'll make it to Bristol in time for their scheduled appearances in the Craftsman Truck race Wednesday. Someone put three Mallard duck decoys in a puddle in the garage area. Everyone jokes that Centurion Boats, which sponsored last weekend's race at Watkins Glen International, should have backed this one instead.

Drivers are running out of movies to watch in their motor homes. Crewmen are tired of standing under transporter gate lifts, watching it rain. This is a sport where every rainout must be made up and every event is crucial to the championship, but right now everybody just wants to go home. Remember the rainy 2002 Champ Car race on the street course at Surfers Paradise, Australia, that couldn't be rescheduled because people had to drive to work the next day? They ran virtually the entire thing under yellow, with pit stops determining the winner. With a short week and then a West Coast trip looming, bet some in the Nextel Cup garage would take that right about now.

That would never happen in NASCAR, where it's all about the event. Monday brought a tantalizing, hour-long respite from the raindrops, which prompted jet dryers and service vehicles to make an attempt at drying the track surface, and led a few hardy spectators to take their seats in the grandstands. Officials worked hard to get the race in, so fans who bought tickets would have something to see and competitors here since Thursday could go home. And because their own schedule is leaving them precious little room to move it anywhere else.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.