Mother Nature doing NASCAR no favors at Atlanta

It would not be shocking if one or both NASCAR races scheduled this weekend at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) in Hampton, Georgia, were postponed or, at the very least, delayed.

Summer showers and thunderstorms are expected at the track this weekend as the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Cup Series prepare to race at what has become one of the most exciting tracks in the sport. 

Saturday's forecast calls for an afternoon thunderstorm that could disrupt Cup Series qualifying (4:30 p.m. ET, truTV), though the skies could be clear for O'Reilly Series qualifying on Saturday morning (11 a.m. ET, the CW App). 

The forecast for Saturday evening could be a bit trickier to figure out. The O'Reilly Series race is slated for a 6:30 p.m. ET green flag (the CW, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), while storms could also disrupt the start of Sunday's Cup Series race (7 p.m. ET, TNT, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). 

Mother Nature isn't playing nice

Further complicating the weekend is the fact that the forecast for Monday and Tuesday isn't ideal, either. There's potential for heavy storms on Monday and rain on Tuesday. 

The good news for NASCAR is that Atlanta is less than 4.5 hours from the NASCAR hub of Charlotte, and next weekend's races are at the North Wilkesboro Speedway in Wilkes County, North Carolina, less than 1.5 hours from the Queen City. 

That should allow NASCAR, in the most dire of circumstances, to be able to race on Tuesday or even Wednesday, which it did at Texas in the fall of 2020, if weather delays persist. 

There's also the possibility that both races start on their scheduled days but run late into the night, as they did last year at Atlanta following weather delays.