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.

David Gilliland, driver of the No. 38 Ford who will start third Sunday, said he will have to rely on notes from Pocono's June race.

"We unloaded in race trim yesterday and we're fairly happy with our car," Gilliland said. "We would have definitely liked to have gotten some laps in, I think everybody here would have, but I don't think we're really too concerned about it. Our Ford was pretty fast."

Gilliland's crew chief Cully Barraclough said knowing the team rolled off the truck in good shape was reassuring.

"There's always a menu of stuff that we would like to try to improve our car, like everyone else, and a lot of these teams have a lot more experience here than us, but with the new car everybody is trying to build a new catalog of tools in their chest to improve their car for certain things," Barraclough said. "We just need a little bit here and a little bit there to make the car what we think will be drivable on the long run, so that makes you feel a little bit better when it rains."

Pemberton added practice is relative to the rest of the people around you.

"I feel confident. Our car is better than it was the last time here and we made some adjustments to it," he said. "It could work out in our favor. I feel better about the situation than where we were here in June. We have a couple parallels from last time we'll use and make our adjustments from there. We made two short race runs yesterday and that set the tone for us."

Rookie Regan Smith in the No. 01 Chevy for Dale Earnhardt Inc. was likely the most disappointed of the Cup drivers speaking on the rained-out practice session and will be searching through his notes from the last Pocono race.

"It's definitely not ideal," Smith said. "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."

In Friday's only practice session, which lasted 90 minutes, two-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson led the speed chart with a lap of 168.215 mph and later went on to grab the pole in qualifying.

Mark Martin was second fastest and qualified second, respectively. Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top-five fastest during practice.