NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying is set to take place during an eclipse
The stars are set to align in Las Vegas, Nevada. A solar eclipse is set to take place during NASCAR weekend.
It won’t happen again for 25 years. And this time, it will take place at the exact same time as NASCAR is on track during a playoff weekend.
The NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series will race this weekend at the 1.5-mile of Las Vegas Motor Speedway. On Saturday morning, the NASCAR Cup Series will roll to the track for practice and qualifying.
The session will be interesting as it will take place during the solar eclipse. The moon will pass between the Earth and the Sun, blocking sunlight in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas will not be in the direct path of a full eclipse. However, they will be near it and it will get significantly darker at the track during the session.
I was in St. Louis during the full eclipse several years ago. In the middle of the day, it was night time and the crickets started singing like the sun was going away for good. It was odd as hell.
Maximum darkness will take place around 9:26 a.m PDT. It will take over an hour for the sky to return to normal.
As stated, Las Vegas Motor Speedway isn’t in the path of the full eclipse. However, it’s very near, roughly 150 miles from it. The sky will rapidly darken as the start of Cup Series practice.
NASCAR Cup Series practice is scheduled for 12:35pm ET (9:35PDT) and qualifying will run at 1:20pm ET (10:20 PDT).
Las Vegas Motor Speedway is the opening race in the Round of 8 of the NASCAR playoffs.
