LONG POND, Pa. -- At 9:50 a.m. ET Saturday, crew chief Ryan Pemberton sent his driver David Reutimann to sit at the Mt. Pocono Airport.

Granted, it was 10 minutes before Sprint Cup practice was to begin, but the rain was falling incessantly on Pocono Raceway and the chances of getting the track dried before the day's ARCA scheduled race looked slim.

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I think the biggest thing for us was we really wanted to try some new stuff that we've been working on and we're not going to get an opportunity to do that now which kind of stinks.

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REGAN SMITH

"I just told him to go wait, the track takes two hours to dry and when I felt comfortable enough to pull the trigger and could see practice would be cancelled, I told him to take off for Montreal," Pemberton said.

And it was.

Due to the morning rain that poured on Pocono Raceway, NASCAR cancelled both scheduled Sprint Cup practice sessions at about 11:10 a.m. ET.

"David landed in Montreal at 12:20 p.m.," said Pemberton, whose driver will start in the 28th spot in Sunday's Pennsylvania 500.

Reutimann made the Nationwide qualifying session, but still missed out on collecting valuable information for Sunday's race, as did all the Cup drivers who failed to make race runs during Friday's only Cup Series practice session.

Fortunate for Pemberton, his Michael Waltrip Racing team and driver made two short race runs.

Michael Waltrip, Reutimann's team owner and teammate, said he's not concerned about the lack of practice.

"We were just here a month ago and Goodyear brought a good tire last time so there shouldn't be any issues," he said. "I'm not running well, but we are all going to be in the same boat tomorrow."

Nationwide Series points leader Clint Bowyer qualified 30th for Sunday's Pennsylvania 500 and was hopeful to get the sessions under way but also left for Montreal mid-morning.

"It looks like another batch [of weather] is coming in so we need to probably just go ahead and get up [to Montreal] and see if we can make qualifying ...," Bowyer said before leaving for Montreal to qualify for the NAPA Auto Parts 300 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. (Continued)