Rain postpones NASCAR Martinsville race until Sunday

Due to persistent rain showers and thunderstorms, Saturday night’s Cup race was stopped after 42 laps and has been postponed until 4pm local time on Sunday.

When the Cup race was halted, Denny Hamlin was the leader followed by Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr and Chase Elliott.

The latest schedule changes have meant another shuffle in the NASCAR programme for this weekend, with the remainder of Friday night’s Xfinity Series race set to start at 12pm local time on Sunday. The race was halted Friday night 29 laps short of the finish of Stage 2 due to rain.

When the Xfinity Series race was halted, Brandon Jones was the leader followed by Josh Berry, Daniel Hemric, Brett Moffitt and Jeb Burton.

During Cup race inspection on Saturday afternoon, Daniel Suarez's crew chief, Travis Mack, was ejected from the track after the Suarez’s Chevrolet was found to have added ballast outside of the approved container.

The team also lost 10 driver and owner points and Suarez had to start at the rear of the field.

Also starting from the rear of the field was Corey LaJoie, Justin Haley and James Davison – all for multiple inspection failures – and Tyler Reddick for unapproved adjustments to his Chevrolet.

Following a lengthy delay, NASCAR started the race although bad weather remained in the area. Hamlin took an early lead from polesitter Logano and led the way until James Davison spun in Turn 4, which brought out a caution. During the caution, the rain picked up and NASCAR ultimately postponed the remainder of the race to be completed on Sunday.