Richmond Rain Pushes Race To Sunday

NASCAR got all wet Saturday night in Richmond and had to postpone its Crown Royal 400 until Sunday. Jet dryers were used to prepare the track's surface after rain fell before the start on the race on the Richmond International Raceway. However, threatening skies gave way to a downpour leading to the postponement after only 12 low-speed laps. Some cars nearly slid off the track before the action was halted. I'm not much of a NASCAR fan, but I hear that Jimmie Johnson won the race on a dry track Sunday.

Juan Pablo Montoya is not used to rain delaying races, The News & Advance out Lynchburg, Va., reports. Montoya came over to NASCAR this year after running on the Formula 1 circuit, where races are not stopped because of rain, but rather racing slicks are exchanged for grooved rain tires.

"Probably the best story is when half the field in Formula One wrecked in the same corner in Brazil. When was that, like 2003? It was raining hard, but there was like a river coming across the track," Montoya said.

Weekend Baseball Delays
I love photos of grounds crews working their tarp magic at the ol' ballpark. Above is an AP photo of the crew members at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City removing the tarp after heavy rain delayed the start of the Royals' game with Detroit by 26 minutes. The Tigers won 13-4. (AP Photo/Dick Whipple). The first pitch of the Reds game with the Colorado Rockies Saturday night at the Great American Ballpark was delayed by 61 minutes.

Tennis Action On The Skids
Who knew there was a Steffi Graf Stadium? I guess a lot of people in Germany know of its existence, but today was the first I, a Steffi fan, had heard about it. Anyway, the Getty Images photo above shows fans waiting through a rain delay on the opening day of the Qatar German Open. Nothing exciting here, but it does give me a chance to mention Steffi on The Rainout Blog. …Justine Henin defeated Alona Bondarenko 6-1, 6-3 Monday to win her second J&S Cup title after rain postponed Sunday's action for a day.

SPRINKLES: A high school baseball tournament in Illinois scheduled to begin last Friday was postponed a day because of tornado warnings and a visible funnel cloud that appeared near the ballpark. "I've never been tornadoed out," said Mike Waldo, pitching coach of the host team Edwardsville Tigers. The twister appeared just as the visiting team was taking infield practice. …A writer for OutlookIndia.com is asking why the recent rain-plagued cricket World Cup was not played in February and March when weather in the Caribbean has less humidity and rain.

Weather Term of the Day:
TORNADO ALLEY -- A geographic corridor in the United States which stretches north from Texas to Nebraska and Iowa. In terms of sheer numbers, this section of the United States receives more tornadoes than any other.