What ProStDodge said is pretty much on the money, let me give you guys a little insight from the tower..... The posted schedule is ALWAYS subject to change based on weather and other factors. (oil downs)
By the time we played the National Anthem on Saturday we were already 4 hours behind schedule. Then right off the bat in the box class we had another 45 minutes of oil down time.
After that it took 3 hours to run 84 cars down the track, that's about 2 more hours of delays. Shortly after 10 pm we had ANOTHER oil down, and that was the backbreaker. Up until that point I had planned on running box and no box, but with almost 150 cars in those 2 classes, it just wasn't realistic anymore. We split the purse between the 1st round winners just like any rainout. Case Closed on box/no box!
Another factor was the track crew. After the violent storm that rolled through Friday night, they started working around 7am Saturday to get the track ready. All that oil did not clean itself up , and these guys worked until after midnight. If any of the track crew is reading this, thank you for busting your butts for 17 hours!
Scott (the announcer) was practically begging racers to pull over and stop if something was wrong, but one car after the other went right down the groove spewing fluid. We may have to address that situation for future races, as that truly is what messed up our weekend.
Oh and the 55 Chevy, it was totally comical how he got in. But I did call him to the tower, refund his money and he left...... sorry about that.
