Atlanta Motor Speedway Weather Forecast: Waiting Game With Mother Nature

All day Saturday and most of the day Sunday look fair and dry with a mix of clouds and sunshine. High pressure remains in control for another day as temperatures reach the low 90s for the afternoon Saturday. Fair weather is expected for the Nationwide race on Saturday night with temperatures in the mid 80s falling into the upper 70s.

Sunday is the more complicated forecast. We have moisture associated with Tropical Storm Lee along the Gulf Coast, interacting with a slow moving cold front coming in from the north. This sets the stage very nicely for the development of showers and storms as we head into Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening.

Although my official forecast is calling for showers and storms to become more likely as the evening and night wears on Sunday, I am not even close to calling this race a washout. There are a few forecast models we use that are slow in bringing rain to Atlanta Motor Speedway. It also appears that Lee could actually slow and stall the front farther to the north, which I think could allow for more dry time Sunday night.

This is one of the more challenging forecasts I have seen all season. To put this into racing terms, I feel like the crew chief with my driver in the lead and I am trying to calculate if we have enough fuel to make it to the end or we will end up coming up one or two laps short.

The question is not whether if it will rain Sunday into Monday; it’s a matter of when in my opinion. If the race would end up getting postponed and the next few days – Monday and Tuesday – don’t look much better.

I will be updating as often as new data comes in today and Sunday. Keep checking back and follow me on Twitter for more updates as we go though the weekend.

SATURDAY:
8:30 a.m EDT
Nationwide Practice – Partly sunny – temp: 72
9:45 a.m EDT
Nationwide Final Practice – Partly sunny – temp: 76
1:30 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Final Practice – Partly sunny – temp: 88
3:30 p.m EDT
Nationwide Qualifying – Partly sunny – temp: 91
5:00 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Qualifying – Partly sunny – temp: 92
7:30 p.m EDT
Nationwide Race – Patchy clouds – temp: 85

SUNDAY:
7:30 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Race – Showers and storms becoming likely through the evening– temp: 83