Pocono NASCAR race postponed due to rain (Update)

UPDATE The green flag will be 12 p.m. ET on Monday, June 6. Parking lots will open at 7 a.m. ET and gates will open starting at 8:00 a.m. ET. A ticket will be required to attend. All current ticket holders of Sunday Gate Admission Tickets for Sunday, June 5, including Sunday One-Day Infield tickets, will be honored and scanned at the gates. Additionally, Pre-Race Pit/Paddock Passes are valid for use on Monday, June 6, but only in the Paddock. There will be no Pit or Frontstretch access and no new additional Pit/Paddock Pass sales tomorrow.

06/05/16 The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series' Axalta 'We Paint Winners' 400 at Pocono Raceway has been postponed due to inclement weather.

The race, originally scheduled for a 1 p.m. ET start time on Sunday, was delayed for weather initially. Equipped with 20 Air Titan dryers and 10 conventional jet dryers, NASCAR officials were prepared to dry the track, but were unable to find a dry window through persistent rain, fog and mist. z

Officials eventually made the decision to call the race and the series will run the 400-miler on Monday, June 6 at noon ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

"We kind of anticipated that it might be a rainout today," said Jason Ratcliff, crew chief for the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota driven by third-place starter Matt Kenseth. "Right now, the forecast that we had for tomorrow looks very similar to what we had in practice yesterday, so we kind of based our set-up on what we thought we needed, thinking that the chances of racing on a Monday afternoon — mid-70s, partly sunny — were probably greater than racing on Sunday.

"The biggest thing for us is just the hassle, having to adjust your schedule, which is part of it. Now what you'd typically do on a Monday, you're going to try to cram into this afternoon or it's going to be a long Tuesday. But it's the same for everyone. We'll just have to adjust."

Weather has created hurdles for the teams throughout the weekend, as rain and fog ended Friday Cup practice prematurely and canceled a pair of XFINITY Series practices the same day. The XFINITY Series Pocono Green 250 was called just past the halfway point at Lap 53 of the 250-mile event, as rain continued to fall during a red flag. Kyle Larson, who was leading at the time of the red flag, was declared the winner.

This race, the 14th of 36 races on the Sprint Cup circuit, marks the first Cup event of the season that been postponed to the following day.

It's also the first Sprint Cup postponement at Pocono Raceway since August 2009, a Monday race won by Denny Hamlin.