Rain threatens to halt NASCAR's return to action

Heavy rain has moved into the Carolinas and threatens to throw a roadblock into the continuation of NASCAR’s return to racing this week.

On Monday evening, NASCAR announced a schedule change, moving up the start of Tuesday’s scheduled Toyota 200 Xfinity Series race at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway to 6 p.m. ET.

The race will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The event was originally scheduled for an 8 p.m. ET start.

NASCAR has also moved up the start of Wednesday night's Toyota 500k Cup Series to 6 p.m. ET. It was originally scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. ET.

The forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday does not look good, however.

According to The Weather Channel, there is a 100-percent chance of thunderstorms in the Darlington area on Tuesday, 90 percent Wednesday and 90 percent Thursday.

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If Tuesday night's Xfinity race is postponed, it will run at noon ET Thursday. If both the Xfinity and Cup races are postponed, Xfinity will run at noon ET Thursday and Cup will run at 7 p.m. ET Thursday. If just Wednesday's Cup race is postponed, it will run at noon ET Thursday. All races will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1.

Sunday’s Cup race at Darlington, won by Kevin Harvick, was the first live NASCAR race held since March 8. The following week live sports shut down as the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the United States.

Sunday’s race – and all scheduled NASCAR events through June 21 – are scheduled to be held without fans in attendance.