The Olympics break is nearing its end. NASCAR will resume at the Richmond Raceway, the first of the last four races left before the playoffs. However, there are still uncertainties about the Richmond race as Mother Nature stands in the way. Hurricane Debby is en route!
The Richmond Raceway officials released a statement on X, which read, “The projected rainfall from Tropical Storm Debby may force motorists to reroute their entry to Richmond Raceway this weekend. We encourage the fans and industry to monitor the following Henrico County handles on social media for the latest road closures and updates.” Also, on the recent episode of the Dale Jr download podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr talked about his personal experiences with hurricanes and how, due to one of them, Dale Earnhardt Sr could not go for the qualifying once.
Earnhardts and their hurricane experiences
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As reported by Newsweek, Hurricane Debby after hitting northern Florida and southern Georgia, is now expected to move toward Virginia later this week, which could impact the NASCAR Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway. In the recent episode of the Dale Jr Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr also spoke about this wrath of nature.
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He said, “Right now it’s kind of in the southern end of the Carolina, The South Carolina coast doing this sort of a funky loop. Which is going to make it live all on that coat line for quite a while over the next 48 hours. It’s just a ton of water.” The ton of water currently stands in the way of the Richmond weekend. According to Dale Jr, he has first-hand experience of the hurricane as he owns a house in South Carolina, where they are receiving unprecedented flooding.
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This isn’t his first experience with hurricanes. As he dwelled on the topic, he remembered a story of ‘The Intimidator’ and the hurricane called Hugo. Dale Jr, apparently, still remembers the day clearly as things were flying around everywhere. Reiterating this he said, “I remember when Hugo came, we were in Piedmont, we were in Dad’s lake house, watching everything outside that wasn’t tied down moving around in the yard. We had this big giant three-wheeler and it’s just all around the yard. It’s over here and now it’s over here. It’s moving 100-150 yards.” What’s interesting is that Dale Sr during that time had to go for the qualifying race of Martinsville, but he was stuck on the island.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr describing the situation and the events that followed; said, “He couldn’t get on the road and Jimmy Hensley had to qualify his car, set it on pole. Jimmy was very good at Martinsville.”Hopefully, unlike Dale Sr, all the teams, racers, and fans can make it to Richmond and the fans can see a thrilling race after a long haul. As for now, nothing can be said of the weekend.
Will the race happen in Richmond?
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As of now, the Richmond officials seem to be positive about the weekend. However, they have canceled all the pre-race activities and have issued an alert. In their statement, they said, “All pre-event activities at Richmond Raceway have been cancelled through 4 p.m. Friday afternoon. Our priority is to prepare for a safe and incredible weekend of racing for our fans. We look forward to welcoming them for 2 great nights of action on Saturday & Sunday.”
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Fox News’s Bob Pockrass also took to X to share how NASCAR officials are dealing with the issue. He wrote, “NASCAR will monitor the weather and conditions as they have a few days before making any decisions. The garage isn’t scheduled to open until Saturday. (Cup haulers scheduled to enter Friday late afternoon; truck haulers Saturday morning).”In a separate statement, he echoed the words of raceway officials saying that the pre-race events are cancelled.
What will happen in the Richmond race? Only time will tell. However, if they do go ahead with it, it will surely be dramatic as, at this stage of the series, several are desperate to win. The race will set a tone for the contenders who will finally make the playoff list.
