NASCAR At Daytona 2014: Coke Zero 400 in race weather update

NASCAR was able to start the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway but with just a few laps in scattered showers formed near the track and moved over to cause a caution, then that led to a red flag thanks to these showers. These showers are varying in intensity and are scattered. The main concern will be more rain as we go through the afternoon. I think there could be windows but we will have to doge and deal with showers and thunderstorms all day.

Can we get the race in? This is the million dollar question isn’t it. I say our best bet is to hope for an official race (halfway) and then anything beyond that is bonus. It’s not good that the rain got an earlier start today but NASCAR does have all afternoon and evening to complete 400 miles. I think the odds of an official race is around 65% while a full complete race is around 50%.

What makes this forecast today and over the last two days so challenging? I’ve used this analogy before but imagine you have a a bag of marbles and on the floor you have a map. You take that bag of marbles and then you dump them on to the map. Before you do that you have to forecast exactly when each marble will stop rolling and you also have to predict where they will stop. When it comes to the storms that form over Florida during the afternoon, this is the same challenge weather forecasters have. The other challenge is predicting how long these showers will last.