Rain forces postponement at Indy, sets up Monday NASCAR doubleheader
By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Light misting rain at Indianapolis Motor Speedway put a damper on track activities for the third straight day and forced postponement of the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard until 2 p.m. Monday.
The final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the regular season will be run as the second half of a doubleheader with the Lilly Diabetes 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series event, which was postponed from Saturday.
Start time for the Xfinity race is 10 a.m. Both events will be broadcast on NBCSN, IMS and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, JJ Yeley and Ross Chastain are entered in both races. Blaney, Elliott and Austin Dillon already are locked into the 10-race Cup Playoffs, which start next Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
With the starting lineups for both races ordered according to owner points because of qualifying rainouts, Blaney will lead the field to green in the Lilly Diabetes 250. Kyle Busch, a six-time winner this season, has the top starting spot for the Big Machine Vodka 400, sharing the front row with seven-time winner Kevin Harvick.
Because of inspection failures on Saturday, reigning Cup champion Martin Truex Jr. and Daniel Suarez will drop to the rear from their respective third- and 20th-place starting positions for the start of the Cup race.