Daytona 500 postponed to Monday afternoon

UPDATE: NASCAR has officially been postponed due to rain. The race will re-start on Monday at 4:05 p.m. ET on FOX.

UPDATE: At 6:33 p.m., NASCAR told drivers to get to their cars, per Dustin Long. However, Long reported at 6:43 that the rain returned and NASCAR told teams to cover their cars.

UPDATE: The delay continues with a chance a Sunday evening re-start maaaaaybe happens around 10pm, but depends on what NASCAR decides.

UPDATE: It’s still early, but there’s a rumor floating around of a 4 p.m. ET re-start time on Monday.

The Daytona 500 had a delayed start, and 20 laps in, it’s looking at an even lengthier delay. The green flag got the race started at 4:22 p.m. ET, but the red flag came out at approximately 4:37 p.m. and the cars went into pit row to shut it down while the rain came in. Pole-sitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led all 20 laps at the time of the delay.

NASCAR reporter Jeff Gluck tweeted that this could be a two hour delay just given the nature of the rain. Fans were hiding under the stands to avoid the rain, and the radar is not offering much in the way of good news. Even though the rain will break up for stretches, the radar shows another wave coming through in an hour.

It is entirely possible that at this rate the race ends up postponed into Monday. We’ll keep an eye on things and update as news comes in.