NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400 dealing with multiple delays

Update — Hamlin remains in the lead as the race has resumed. It’s in the 148th lap and 58/95 in Stage 2 of the race.

Update — The Ally 400 had resumed but there is another caution for lightning and rain at lap 140. Denny Hamlin is in the lead with Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch also toward the top.

The NASCAR Cup Series is in Nashville, Tennessee and the Nashville Superspeedway for the Ally 400. It hasn’t been an easy day as the weather isn’t cooperating with the drivers. There was lightning within an eight-mile radius of the track so there is a red flag caution for a mandatory thirty-minute delay.

The race began at 5 p.m. ET and there was an hour-long weather delay during the first stage of the race. It started out as a lightning delay, but then fans were moved to their cars and told to take shelter there for the second half-hour. The race resumed and they were able to finish the first stage and get halfway through the second. Now, there is lightning in the area and an impending thunderstorm. The cars are on pit road and are covered and there is a mandatory 30-minute delay.

Martin Truex Jr. won the first stage of the race and Denny Hamlin is the current leader if/when this one resumes.

NASCAR tends to pull out all the stops to not postpone the finish of a race. There is at least a 47% chance of rain the rest of the night for the track so it remains to be seen how much more they will be able to run tonight. Nashville is in the central time zone so they are working with a little more time than if it were on the east coast.