INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Rain washed out all Saturday track activity at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the field for the final race of the regular season was set by points.
Kyle Busch will start on the pole today for the Brickyard 400. Kevin Harvick will start second and Martin Truex Jr. third.
The Xfinity Series race was also canceled and rescheduled for Monday. Rain is expected to drench Indiana and expectations are slim for the Cup Series to race as scheduled.
JJ NEEDS A SPARK: Jimmie Johnson doesn’t have a playoff spot locked in as the seven-time NASCAR champion prepared for rain-drenched Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the final race of the regular season.
Johnson is in a 48-race losing streak headed into the Brickyard 400 and his Hendrick Motorsports team has been inconsistent all season. It’s put him up by just 19 points over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman in the battle for the 15th position on the playoff grid. That should be enough to get Johnson into the playoffs, but a surprise race winner could jumble the final berths.
“We’ve had a tough year,” Johnson said Saturday. “It’s been extremely frustrating and extremely difficult to live through, but we are all still very eager to turn it around and know that we will.”
KAHNE OUT: Kasey Kahne will not defend his Brickyard 400 victory because of dehydration issues he said result in an elevated heart rate while he is driving.
Kahne, 38, said he felt so poorly he should not have been driving the final 100 laps of last weekend’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. He said he was nauseous, struggled to take in fluids from the midway point of the race and vomited when it was over.
Kahne received fluids in the medical center following last Sunday’s race in South Carolina. Regan Smith will drive the No. 95 Chevrolet today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
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