Stewart-Haas Racing crew members were not at the track to move cars out of the high waters
This weekend, it’s the NASCAR All-Star Race paying $1M to win at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Torrential rains have brought some chaos to the garage area.
During the NASCAR Truck Series portion of the event, a rain shower moved into the area. That shower turned into a downpour.
The infield of the race track quickly became flooded. Some portions of the infeld were under several feet of water.
It’s speculated that a clogged drain caused a bulk of the flooding at the track.
Stewart-Haas Racing didn’t have crew members at the track to tend to cars in the storm
Stewart-Haas Racing has multiple cars at the track. However, none of them are locked into the All-Star Race.
SHR drivers include: Josh Berry, Noah Gragson, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece
All-Star Open cars wouldn’t touch the track until Sunday afternoon not could crews make any adjustments to the cars. Only cars locked into the All-Star Race touched the track on Saturday.
Due to that, all the Stewart-Haas Racing crew members were absent from the track on Saturday. Additionally, the track is located near the homes of most team members, making it even easier to send crew members home.
However, in the downpour, no SHR crew members were at the track to look after their cars. Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR officials stepped up to seal the SHR cars and help get them out of the high water areas.
North Wilkesboro Speedway is built on an incline. That sent water running to the lowest elevation of the infield. And that’s where the SHR cars were staged.
An executive from SHR was there to look after the process.
Rodney Childers commented, “A big thanks to Cliff Daniels and the HMS guys for backing up all of the SHR cars so they wouldn’t be in the pond.”
“It’s unreal to see the comments from this. The open cars weren’t allowed to do anything today. Open cars weren’t allowed to load their cars last night. SHR haulers are the only parked in the low spot of the entire infield.
Childers added, “I was headed up to watch the heats, and started raining.”
Additionally, driver Noah Gragson stated, “Thank you to both nascar and the Hendrick teams for helping us out today. Much appreciated.”
On Sunday, drivers will take the green flag in the All-Star Open and the All-Star Race.
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