With qualifying canceled, the two drivers sidelined for second straight weekend
SPARTA, Ky. -- With rain creating havoc for the on-track activity at Kentucky Speedway, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series garage has been kept largely on lockdown for three straight days. The weather deck, however, was stacked even more severely against three unfortunate teams who will miss the race because of a qualifying washout.
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Part-time teams Wood Brothers Racing (with driver Ryan Blaney) and Leavine Family Racing (Michael McDowell) were sidelined for the second straight weekend after Coors Light Pole Qualifying was canceled by wet weather. The Curtis Key-owned Motorsports Group with driver Travis Kvapil also headed home after the starting lineup for Saturday night's Quaker State 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM) was determined according to the NASCAR Rule Book.
NASCAR officials, faced with a third consecutive day of weather-related challenges, opted to cancel qualifying in an effort to provide teams with more practice time ahead of Saturday night's event, the first for a new, low-downforce rules package. Hopes for that practice were dwindling Friday afternoon because of persistent sprinkles at the 1.5-mile track, but cars finally staged for the session at 4:25 p.m. ET.
For longtime team co-owner Eddie Wood, he was left to shrug and say, "the rules are the rules." The Wood Brothers No. 21 had made six previous Sprint Cup Series starts with Blaney at the wheel before the two early exits -- at Daytona International Speedway last weekend, and now here in Kentucky.
"A lot of times people get it confused with how it works, but we've gone a long time and not missed a race with weather," Wood said. "Missing races, if you're slow and you miss a race because you're not fast enough, is a bad deal. That just kills your soul, but you can't do anything about the weather. We've been really lucky for the past seven years and haven't missed one, but now the numbers seem to be leveling out. I've always heard that numbers always level out and that's kind of what's going on."
Rain has plagued every day at Kentucky since Sprint Cup teams arrived for the expanded race weekend. An extended Wednesday practice and its rescheduled make-up session Thursday were washed out, and Sprint Cup teams only completed 50 minutes of opening practice Friday before a heavy shower throttled the speedway.
Both Blaney and McDowell tweeted their exasperation before their team haulers headed for the infield tunnel, just before the start of final practice. Wood said the team planned to enter next weekend's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, hoping that Mother Nature would look kindly on stock-car racing and their team for a change.
"We're gonna run next week at Loudon, so we'll head up that way and hope we don't get rained out," Wood said. "I'm gonna stop looking at weather apps, I tell you that. I'm done as far as that is concerned."