Rain, again, hits NASCAR hard: The Texas 500 is now on for Monday, part of an 800-mile double-header

  A cold north Texas rain keeps Mark Martin's Sprint Cup crew bundled up and under cover Sunday. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   FORT WORTH
   For the second time this season rainy weather has forced NASCAR to postpone a Sprint Cup event, Sunday's persistent and aggravating light rain pushing the Texas Samsung 500 to 11 a.m. CT (noon ET) Monday, with the Nationwide 300 set for green 45 minutes after the Cup race, about 5 p.m. ET.
   Fans holding tickets for either race will be allowed to stay for both.
   Fox will carry the 500; ESPN2, the 300.
   Monday's weather should be a bit warmer than Sunday's rainy 58 degrees (at 3 p.m.). The prediction is for a high of 66 degrees.
   Eddie Gossage, the track president, called the decision to let ticket holders for either even to stay for both "the fan-friendly thing to do." The races are not sellouts, and there will be $91 double-header tickets on sale. Obviously some Nationwide ticket holders might have the same seats as Cup ticket holders, and how that shuffling might work out is unclear. "We are optimistic they will respect each other and find a nearby seat if they have the identical one," Gossage said. Typically tracks, in such circumstances, will "clear" the grandstands after the first race and then readmit fans for the second.
   The unusual double-header will mean more than a dozen Cup drivers set to run more than 800 miles: Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, David Reutimann, Reed Sorenson, Joe Nemechek, Michael McDowell and Greg Biffle.
  The 2002 race here was also rain-postponed until Monday; that year the local school system, which has a major campus just a mile from Texas Motor Speedway, closed school, rather than get trapped in the heavy race traffic. This time however students won't get the day off. How that will impact traffic is unclear; traffic for this event is typically some of the heaviest of the NASCAR tour. Texas track officials had planned to let students in the race for free, with their school ID; but the school's decision voided that.
   Bill Elliott, who is running a limited Cup schedule this season with the Wood brothers, and making his first tour start since Atlanta, said Saturday's rain, which washed out all practice, will make for a tough Monday race:  "What's unfortunate for us is only doing a handful of qualifying runs and then starting the race from dead scratch. This is the first race for us with the (new) rear spoiler, so we're way behind the eight-ball. We've just got to guess and go."
   Another problem with the rain, Elliott added with a laugh, is that each team's hauler "doesn't normally have enough food on it if it rains. That's the first thing that goes. You can go on just about every hauler in this garage area when it's raining and everybody is either telling lies or eating...if not both."
  
  
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    Track pres Eddie Gossage (C) and artist Sam Bass (R) present musician Peter Frampton with a custom guitar for his planned pre-race concert. Wonder if this thing shoots bullets too? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)