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NASCAR adds The Weather Company as partner, provide more in-depth info

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SPARTA, KY - JULY 07: during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts at Kentucky Speedway on July 7, 2017 in Sparta, Kentucky. (Photo by Sarah Crabill/Getty Images)

Sarah Crabill

CONCORD, North Carolina — NASCAR announced Friday that The Weather Company has entered into a multi-year agreement with the sanctioning body to be the official weather partner of the sport and help officials optimize weather-related decisions.

The partnership has been in place since the beginning of the season, said Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek, global head of marketing for business solutions at The Weather Company.

The announcement comes with preliminary forecasts calling for rain during what would be Sunday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Boockoff-Bajdek said of the early forecast “the weather is looking like there might rain, but I think what we are doing for NASCAR is giving them the most accurate real-time weather information they need so that they can make decisions about what to do here, any day, whether it is here at Charlotte this Sunday or when we get up to Homestead in November. The goal is to provide them with the most accurate and precise and hyper-local forecast.’’

The Weather Company’s meteorologists in Andover, Massachusetts, and Atlanta, will monitor weather conditions and provide insights and information to NASCAR officials so they can decide what course of action they need to take.

More in-depth information can further help NASCAR and tracks with lightning in the area and alerting fans to impending conditions.

Boockoff-Bajdek said: “We are going to be providing NASCAR with a number of very critical insights that will be relevant to their business, but ultimately, it is about NASCAR making the best decisions, not only for operations, but clearly for the fans. They will have access to a tremendous trove of weather insights that will be very specific to the tracks we’re at. If lightning is imminent, they will know and they will be able to make decisions based on that data.’’

One fan was killed and 10 injured in a lightning strike at Pocono in Aug. 2012.

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