Rain keeps Cup off track; practices rescheduled

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Persistent rain that affected virtually every aspect of Friday's schedule at Homestead-Miami Speedway finally postponed the event's only Sprint Cup practices until Saturday morning.

The two 80-minute Cup practices originally scheduled at 3 p.m. and 6:05 p.m. ET now will be held from 9:30-11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET Saturday.

Saturday's weather forecast lists a 30 percent chance of rain. In addition to Sprint Cup practice, Nationwide Series qualifying for the Ford 300 is scheduled at 1:05 p.m. ET; Sprint Cup qualifying for Sunday's Ford 400 is at 2:40 p.m. ET and the Nationwide race is at 4:30 p.m. ET.

* Weather forecast for Homestead

Count Roush Fenway Racing's championship leader, Carl Edwards, among those not worried about the lack of Cup track time Friday. Tony Stewart, who's three points behind Edwards, has no concerns, either.

"I don't know that we're the best at [adapting to the track with changes]," Edwards said, "but I believe [crew chief] Bob Osborne and my guys have done such a good job of taking notes, finding patterns -- I mean, sometimes we'll be in the middle of practice and I'll say something and Bob will say, 'Hey, remember last time we were here or three years ago? I've been noticing you say this in practice, but what I think what you really mean is this.'

"And I'm like, 'Hey, this is good. I didn't catch that.' So Bob finds patterns. He does a good job. If we got no practice [Friday] and we just had to go out there and qualify and race, I would put Bob and my guys up against anyone in the garage to make that car good. They're very good at simulating the setups and coming up with something that will work."

"It's not a big drama -- when we get on the track is when we get on the track," Stewart said, echoing his rival. "I'm confident we have a good Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for this weekend, and Darian [Grubb, crew chief] feels the same way. It just makes me calm. And when we get on the track, we'll be fine.

"We'll just take whatever we got. We have everything to gain and nothing to lose, and I don't feel like [Friday] getting rained out changes any of that."

Edwards' main advantage, besides his career 4.3 average finish at Homestead compared to Stewart's 16.5 average, is that Edwards ran 30 laps in the morning Nationwide practice and was second on the time sheet behind fellow Sprint Cup driver Brad Keselowski.

"It was nice to get out in the Fastenal Mustang [Friday] morning and get on the race track and remember some of the braking points and the places that have grip on the race track," Edwards said. "I think that was really good for me. Hopefully, we'll get some practice in and I'm hoping that we're gonna be fast."

Edwards' other advantage is he's won two of the past three Ford 400s, was seventh in 2009 and has six consecutive top-eight finishes at the South Florida oval. "I love this race track. It was neat to get out there and feel that pavement. You can really slide the car around. There are multiple grooves. The track was changing a lot during that first Nationwide practice.

"It's Homestead. It's gonna be fun. I'm excited. This week has been a lot of talking, a lot of thinking about what's gonna happen, and it was nice to just get in a car and drive. That felt good."

Friday's perplexing weather featured mists, downpours, rainbows, small patches of blue sky but more down time than track time once the initial morning Nationwide Series practice was completed.

Nationwide Happy Hour was cut to only about 10 minutes, Truck Series Happy Hour started late but was extended and ultimately, with 43 trucks in the qualifying line, NASCAR decided to cancel time trials for the series' Friday night finale.

Jet dryers had been running for about an hour when Cup practiced was called at about 6:20 p.m. local time

Edwards maintained a relaxed demeanor Friday, and he said that was relatively simple.

"I've got such a good group around me," Edwards said. "It starts with Bob Osborne. He's just such a calming guy and a focused guy. He's the same this weekend as he is every other weekend. If he's nervous, he hasn't told me. It's unbelievable ... they're helping me a lot just to stay focused and make sure I go do the best I can."

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