California Qualifying Washed Out By Rain

In an unfortunate circumstance for a few, Friday’s qualifying sessions for all three NASCAR races at California Speedway were cancelled due to inclimate weather. Overnight rains finally ended in the mid-morning, and just when NASCAR officials thought they might have things ready to go, another storm rolled in and ended virtually everyone’s fun. As a result, NASCAR was forced to refer to their rulebook – for once – in an effort to set this weekend’s racing lineups. On the outside looking in at the Sprint Cup Series Auto Parts 500 are the likes of Ken Schrader, Patrick Carpentier, AJ Allmendinger, Burney Lamar, and Mike Skinner – assigned to replace Jacques Villeneuve in the Bill Davis Racing no. 27 Toyota. Starting on the front row of that same race will be the Hendrick Motorsports teammates of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Using his second “Past Champions” Provisional already this season was Kurt Busch in the Penske no. 2 Dodge.

Auto Parts 500 Race Lineup (from nascar.com):