Rain delays have been a thorn in the side of both drivers and fans in NASCAR. Whenever Mother Nature decides to pour heavily, races are postponed for fear of cars skidding off course. Daytona International Speedway is one venue where rain delays are a proper trend. But recently, inclement weather drenched another track: the Kansas Speedway.

This spurred a postponement of the race, which dragged fans through a whole three hours. While the original start time was at 3 p.m. ET, the race finally flagged off at 6:25 p.m. ET. This temporal delay cost NASCAR a significant slice of viewership, despite the picture-perfect finish scripting history.

Rain takes a toll on NASCAR’s popularity

When the AdventHealth 400 race entered its last lap, the fans watching were in for a treat. Kyle Larson nursed his pit woes back to the front row and overtook Chris Buescher by the slimmest margin of 0.001 seconds. This spectacle beat the likes of Atlanta’s three-wide finish and became the closest-ever finish in NASCAR history.

However, a large chunk of TV fans missed this phenomenon. One reason stood out for this: the three-hour-long rain delay. Some fans suggested a night race. After the initial postponement, there was a small pocket when the rain let up. As drivers got ready to hit the tracks, the rain gathered momentum again and pounded Kansas. Hence, several TV viewers opted to bail, probably due to personal commitments.

Journalist Adam Stern posted a concerning statistic regarding this small hiccup. He posted the contradicting viewership stats of NASCAR’s Kansas race and Formula One’s Miami Grand Prix race. Sadly for NASCAR fans, F1 beat the American series by 800,000. 

Stern also shared that this year’s Kansas race failed to keep up with last year’s popularity. He tweeted: “.@FS1 got 2.296 million viewers for Sunday’s delayed NASCAR race at Kansas that featured the closest finish in the sport’s history, down 2% from 2.352 million for last year’s race that ran on time.”

However, NASCAR has faced worse circumstances earlier due to Mother Nature’s whims. In the 2014 Daytona 500 race, people had to wait nearly 6 hours and 22 minutes before seeing Dale Earnhardt Jr. take the checkered flag. In a 1973 Bristol race, the authorities had to halt a Cup Series race due to rain after 52 laps. They could finally come back after a tedious two weeks. But Cale Yarborough was undeterred, as he led all 500 laps of the race, a record set in stone. Despite the rain hurting NASCAR’s TV viewership, it may have helped one Cup driver get a grip on his game.

A Hendrick driver hoped to score points in the rain

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Despite being the winningest driver this season, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron faltered at Kansas. During the qualifying for the Kansas race, Byron slipped up. He scraped the wall, being compelled to start from the rear. He said he was “frustrated” but hoped to get his balance for the final race. “There’s definitely a lot of throttles to get out there to have a fast lap and just a combination of my angle and a little bit too much throttle and little tight balance.”

Hence, an added day for the rain delay may have helped him get his head into the game. “But trying to get a chunk of them at the beginning and have our balance close and have a good cycle and probably miss out a little bit on Stage 1 points, which stinks, but we should be good,” he said.

But alas, Kansas was not kind to his efforts, as traffic held up William Byron, and he finished in 23rd place.