With continued heavy rain and flooding throughout Sunday, NASCAR has placed the scheduled 5pm local time start of the inaugural Chicago Street race on hold.
The event is the first street race in the 75-year history of the Cup series, scheduled to be run on a 2.2-mile, 12-turn circuit that carves through the Grant Park area of downtown Chicago near the banks of Lake Michigan.
Standing water – several inches deep – was seen in several areas of the track, including on pitroad.
NASCAR has wet weather tyres, but they are generally not used to race in standing water and poor visibility on the track.
Shortly before the official start time of the race, polesitter Denny Hamlin posted a message on his Twitter account pleading with NASCAR not to run the event under the current conditions.
Once the race begins, Tyler Reddick will start second followed by Shane van Gisbergen, Christopher Bell and Daniel Suarez.
Completing the top-10 starters are Michael McDowell, Kyle Larson, 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button, Joey Logano and A.J. Allmendinger.
Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were all involved in crashes during practice or qualifying on Saturday and will start the race from the rear of the field.
