Rain, rain, rain....
Rain bogs down Tony Stewart's all-star race (Photo: Eldora Speedway)
By Mike Mulhern
mikemulhern.net
POCONO, Pa.
Rain has dogged NASCAR drivers for weeks now, and Wednesday persistent rain force promoter Tony Stewart to postpone his annual summer 'all-star' dirt late model race for NASCAR stars until Sept. 9th.
The new date will be the Wednesday between the Labor Day Atlanta 500 and the Richmond 400 that concludes NASCAR's regular season.
Jeff Gordon, one of the NASCAR stars entered in the all-star event, decided to pull out early Wednesday, because of his back pain.
Gordon, involved in a hard wreck at Dover, spent Tuesday testing at Road Atlanta for the upcoming Sonoma race.
"As a precaution, I have decided not to race at Eldora on Wednesday," Gordon said.
"Due to my recent back procedure, and a road course test Tuesday, I believe the best course of action for me is to bypass the Prelude to The Dream so that I can be in the best physical shape possible for Pocono."
Gordon has had progressively worsening back pain, and he had a facet block procedure two weeks ago, to try to alleviate some of the pain.
Facet block injections are used to isolate and confirm a specific source of back pain. They also numb the pain and inflammation.
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This could be something of a
This could be something of a blessing in disguise for Stewart, if he's still in title contention that week - he can race Atlanta, hold the Prelude, then race Richmond, and the Prelude will get even more publicity with his points position.
I used to enjoy summer rains, until I became a racefan and first encountered a rain delay at Pocono in 1991 (the race where Waltrip ran down Earnhardt while Petty got dropkicked by Lake Speed and was so torked off he passed 15 cars to finish 11th in the final 60 laps). I'm going to petition that songs about rain like SheDaisy's "I Wish I Were The Rain," and Michael Nesmith's cover of Harry Nilsson's "Rain" be banned from speedways.
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