NASCAR officials, after consulting with Fox officials, decided to delay the race for a second time Monday, this time from Noon to 7 p.m. ET. Weather forecasts indicated that's about the time rain is expected to cease at Daytona International Speedway.
Given the time it takes to dry and prepare the track, it's possible that the race won't get underway until 8 p.m. or later, putting it directly into TV's prime-time wheelhouse - and making it the first prime-time start for a Daytona 500.
"Certainly you'd like to try to make some lemonade out of lemons," NASCAR President Mike Helton said. "Ideally the race would have started yesterday as scheduled, and it would have been sunny and we would have been celebrating the Daytona 500 champion today. Under the circumstances, we're just trying to make the best decisions collectively, including Fox."
During the past decade, Daytona 500 ratings typically hovered around 10.0, which amounts to approximately 10 million households and 17 million viewers per race. The race had its lowest rating, 7.7, in 2010, when problems with the track's pavement cause a lengthy delay.
Last year, the race rebounded with an 8.2 rating on Fox, a far cry from the 11.3 rating on NBC in 2006, but a significant improvement over 2010. A prime-time broadcast on a night when Fox sometimes airs hit show American Idol (though Monday's lineup had been earmarked for all-new episodes of House and Alcatraz) could mean a huge ratings catch.
While Fox didn't make the decision, Helton said, it did have a significant say in the call to move the race to 7 p.m.
"From NASCAR's perspective, we try to make the decision that'd good for the entire industry," Helton said.
Rain had stopped Daytona early Monday afternoon. If rain returns and the race doesn't start Monday — or doesn't reach the minimum 101 laps to be considered official — NASCAR will try again Tuesday.
After that, it gets dicey. Teams have to be at Phoenix International Raceway for Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races this weekend, with teams slated to arrive at the track on Thursday night.
"Any decision we make is not going to be universally accepted by everybody," Helton said. "When it rains, it complicates things to an extreme you can't correct."
