NASCAR Cup Series Practice at Indianapolis Postponed Due to Rain

Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

UPDATE: NASCAR will be holding a practice session for the NASCAR Cup Series at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, after all.

The sanctioning body confirmed on Friday (following the cancellation of a 50-minute afternoon practice session from IMS) that NASCAR Cup Series teams would be given the opportunity to get on the racetrack before qualifying.

NASCAR will hold a condensed 25-minute practice session for all 39 NASCAR Cup Series drivers on Saturday, July 26 at 2:00 pm ET, before transitioning into qualifying at 2:40 pm ET.

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Friday's NASCAR Cup Series practice session from Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been canceled due to inclement weather, NASCAR has confirmed.

The session, which was scheduled to last 50 minutes, didn't even have the opportunity to get underway before a lightning strike was within eight miles of the famed racetrack, preventing the drivers from making a single lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Then, as NASCAR waited for the lightning hold to be lifted, the heavy precipitation invaded Speedway, Indiana and completely drenched the 2.5-mile racetrack, making it so that the entire racetrack was lost and would take several hours to get completely dry.

With both the ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series scheduled to hit the racetrack at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Friday, NASCAR felt as though it would be best to cancel NASCAR Cup Series practice. This way, multiple of NASCAR's National or Touring Series would not be on the racetrack at the same time, just down the road from each other.

Now, the NASCAR Cup Series will not make their first laps around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway until Sunday, and will have no idea what the racetrack is like before going full-out to make their qualifying run for the Brickyard 400.

Coverage of single-car qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series will be on Saturday, July 26 at 2:30pm ET on TruTV, IMS Radio Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Several drivers, including Katherine Legge, will be making their first laps around the racetrack in a NASCAR Cup Series car in tomorrow's qualifying session.