UPDATE:
Rain continues to be a stubborn thorn in the side of NASCAR at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The final scheduled NASCAR Cup practice session has been cancelled due to rain. That makes four sessions cancelled thus far today: the two Cup practices, the final Xfinity practice and qualifying for tonight’s Gander Outdoors Truck Series Ford EcoBoost 200 championship race.
Cup teams will get nearly one hour of practice Saturday from 2:05 - 2:55 p.m. ET to make up for losing both practices Friday. As a result, there will be no qualifying session for Cup drivers. The starting lineup for Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 Cup championship will be set by the NASCAR Rule Book with the four Championship 4 drivers to start at the front of the field.
The Truck Race is still on track to run, with driver introductions scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. ET, and the race itself is slated to begin shortly after 8 p.m. ET.
Track drying efforts continue at the 1.5-mile oval.
We’ll update you as more information becomes available.
ORIGINAL STORY?
Rain punctuated with thunder and lightning has forced NASCAR to cancel three of today’s segments at Homestead-Miami Speedway:
* The NASCAR Cup opening practice, which was scheduled to go from 3:35 – 4:25 p.m. ET.
* The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series qualifying, which was slated to start at 4:35 p.m. ET.
* The NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice, which was scheduled for 5:35 – 6:25 p.m. ET.
As of 5:15 p.m. ET, the final NASCAR Cup practice session was still slated to run from 6:30 – 7:20 p.m., while the Ford EcoBoost 200 Truck Series championship race is slated to take the green flag shortly after 8 p.m. ET.
Because qualifying was rained out, the Truck Series starting lineup will be determined by owner points. The four Championship 4 drivers will start this way: Stewart Friesen on the pole, Ross Chastain third, defending series champion Brett Moffitt fourth and Matt Crafton will start ninth, according to NASCAR.
According to wunderground.com, the forecast for tonight calls for a temperature of 72 degrees and a 41% chance of rain to continue at the time the Truck race is set to start.
We’ll keep you updated on the conditions as more information becomes available. Please check back.