Rain delays Martinsville NASCAR race until today

MARTINSVILLE

Sunday was to have been 10-year-old Carson McHayle's first NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

Instead, the son of Jean and Mark McHayle from Wytheville, Va., didn't see any racing at Martinsville Speedway as rain postponed the Goody's Fast Relief 500 until today.

The race is scheduled to begin at noon on Fox. Today's forecast calls for temperatures in the high 50s with a 30 percent chance of rain by 4 p.m., which should be after the race ends.

Tickets from Sunday's race will be honored. Grandstands are scheduled to open at 9 a.m. The ticket office opens at 8 a.m. Tickets remain.

Clay Campbell, track president, encourages fans to arrive early and have patience, noting that not all those working in fan-service areas will return for today's race.

"We won't be drastically off, but it's going to be a little bit," Campbell said of those working in such areas as parking, grandstand gates and concession stands.

Campbell also said he expected all grass parking lots to be available but that they will be monitored.

"The best thing for fans... is just to heed the advice of our parkers and our police officers," Campbell said. "They will direct them to the best lot that we can get them in."

The McHayle family would like to return but that would mean keeping Carson and his sister Chloe, 7, out of school. Of course, they just might be sick today, Mark McHayle joked.

Kenneth Meadows of Madison, N.C., was at the track Sunday with girlfriend Emily West of Kernersville, N.C. The race was a birthday gift for Meadows. He and West, though, won't return because they'll be working.

No, Meadows said, his girlfriend doesn't owe him another birthday gift even after being rained out. "I've had a really good time," Meadows said. "I've got a designated driver. I'm good."

The postponement also alters schedules for some drivers and teams. Denny Hamlin planned to have reconstructive surgery on his left knee today but said on Twitter the operation would be pushed back to late tonight or Wednesday morning. Hamlin tore the ACL in his left knee in January playing basketball and intended to delay surgery until after the season but the knee got worse.

The postponement doesn't bother AJ Allmendinger, who will start 21st.

"I'm happy whenever I get to be in the car, whether that's Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday," he said. "When we drop the green, I know we'll have a good car and we'll be ready to go."

Although he saw no racing, Carson McHayle, wearing a Virginia Tech sweatshirt under his plastic rain poncho, was not disappointed with his first trip to a NASCAR event.

"It was a fun family time," he said.