Wet weather has been an issue for several years

For all the things NASCAR can control, weather remains outside of the sanctioning body's realm. Mother Nature still reigns -- and rains -- on NASCAR's parades with impunity. Having consecutive Sprint Cup races pushed back a day is a rarity, but rarer still is a season without a postponement.

Things got off to a soggy start right off the bat this season, when Matt Kenseth won a rain-shortened Daytona 500. Wet weather plagued the Coca-Cola 600, forcing a one-day delay from Sunday to Monday, then multiple stoppages before David Reutimann was declared the winner. And Joey Logano played the rain game to perfection in winning at New Hampshire.

Rain in 2009

Month	Site	Result
Feb.	Daytona	Race shortened
March	Martinsville	Quals canceled
		Practice canceled*
May	Charlotte	Race postponed
		Race shortened
June	Pocono	Quals canceled
		Practice canceled^
June	New Hampshire	Quals canceled
		Race shortened
July	Daytona	Quals canceled
Aug.	Pocono	Quals canceled
		Race postponed
Aug.	Watkins Glen	Race postponed

* Two sessions | ^ One session

Add to that the Sunday-to-Monday delays at Pocono and Watkins Glen, and it seems like every time we've turned around this season, we're waiting under a rain delay. But is 2009 that unusual? Looking at the past 10 seasons, it's really more the norm than the exception.

Only once in the past decade -- 2004 -- has a season been run without a significant postponement or delay. And in each of the past four seasons, at least one race has been pushed back a day because of inclement weather.

Consider 2007. Not only were the back-to-back Saturday night Richmond and Darlington races pushed back to Sunday -- shades of the past two weekends -- but Dover was run on Monday, the August Michigan race was postponed twice to Tuesday, and Pocono and Kansas were rain-shortened affairs.

The 2002 season also was a wet one. Texas was pushed back to Monday, while Richmond started on a Saturday night and finished on a Sunday afternoon. In addition, Atlanta was rain-shortened, and weather delays affected the races at Charlotte, New Hampshire and Pocono.

Location seems to matter less than sheer happenstance. According to Albert Hammond, it never rains in Southern California, with the exception of 2008, when heavy rain caused the track to develop wet spots along the cracks in the asphalt, and then a steady mist frustrated NASCAR's efforts to dry the track and get the rest of the race in. Instead, teams stayed an extra evening and enjoyed a sunny Monday morning at Fontana.

The same goes for places that rarely get substantial rainfall, like Las Vegas -- which suffered a rain-shortened race in 2000 -- and Phoenix, which had a race start pushed back because of a heavy thunderstorm.

But if there's a track that seems to bring out the best in Mother Nature, it may be Atlanta Motor Speedway. In 2008, the first practice session and Nationwide Series qualifying were postponed because of snow. In 2006, one of the two races was moved to Monday because of rain. In 2005, the track was heavily damaged by a tornado spawned from the remnants of Hurricane Cindy.

In 2003, wet weather before the halfway mark pushed the remainder of the race to Monday. In 2002, rain cut the race short. The 1998 spring race was pushed back one day. And in 1993, a blizzard that walloped the entire Eastern seaboard forced the race to be pushed back a week.

Weather isn't the only unusual circumstance that has postponed a Cup race in the past few years. The Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington forced NASCAR officials to reschedule the 2001 fall race at New Hampshire for the Friday after Thanksgiving. And major wildfires north of Daytona International Speedway required the 1998 July race to be pushed back to October, not because the track was in imminent danger but because it was being used as a staging area for fire equipment.

But as much as Mother Nature dishes out wet weather on Sundays, it seems like she's at her worst on Fridays. Cup qualifying has been canceled 15 times in the past two seasons, although in light of the top-35 rule, NASCAR officials in recent seasons seem to be more willing to cancel qualifying in favor of making sure teams get adequate practice time. The last season in which the pole was not set by the weather rule was in 1998.