Rain likely to hamper Atlanta events

Practice for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has already been delayed by rain and forecasts show the current conditions could prevail throughout the rest of the day, probably affecting both practice and qualifying for the Sprint Cup series.

Should qualifying be cancelled due to rain later today, the starting field for Sunday's race would look similar to the one at Fontana two weeks ago.

Positions would be given according to last year's owner standings for those in the top 35, and this year's points for those non guaranteed or without a champion's provisional.

Others such as Patrick Carpentier and Mike Skinner - who replaces AJ Allmendinger at Red Bull Racing Team - are hoping for weather conditions to improve as otherwise they would be left out of the field for Sunday, as well as Johnny Benson, Joe Nemechek and Burney Lamar.

Although forecasts show Sunday should not be affected by rain despite cool temperatures, Saturday's predictions are of a 20 per cent chance of precipitations, strong winds and the lowest temperatures of the whole weekend.