BROOKLYN, Mich. - The break in NASCAR's Cup Series schedule will have to wait.
Sunday's race at Michigan International Speedway was postponed because of rain. It was rescheduled for Monday at 5 p.m. EDT, the second time in just more than a month that a Cup Series race has been pushed past the weekend because of weather.
The race at Dover International Speedway early last month also was pushed to Monday. That left a quick turnaround before the following Saturday's race at Kansas Speedway. That's not an issue this time. The schedule has an open date next weekend before resuming June 23 at Sonoma Raceway in California.
Of course, that means this delay eats into that time off.
Sunday's race never began, and the postponement was announced after a delay of about 2 1/2 hours from the scheduled start time.
There was a brief moment, about 90 minutes before the postponement, when a start seemed imminent. Detroit Lions coach Matt Patricia, the grand marshal, even gave the command for drivers to start their engines. Cars were on the track, but rain quickly forced them onto pit road.
It turned out the biggest entertainment of the day may have been Corey LaJoie and Bubba Wallace throwing and kicking a football around while everyone waited. Fellow driver Daniel Hemric played along, too.
"Is it a bad thing that my most famous moment in a firesuit is slinging a pigskin at a large group of fans?" LaJoie tweeted. "NAH."
Last year's June race at Michigan was shortened by rain, but it ended on Sunday as planned, with Clint Bowyer the winner. Kevin Harvick won the most recent Cup Series race at Michigan last August.
The last time a Cup Series race at Michigan was pushed past the weekend was in August 2007, when Kurt Busch won.
The gap in the schedule is the series' first since Easter weekend in April. Bowyer was asked Friday what his plans were.
"Lake time," the Kansas native said. "Lake time is one of my most favorite things to do. Flooding is affecting everything. These people are getting beat up in the Midwest bad. Hopefully they get some relief and some sunlight and hopefully we will be enjoying the lake. Everything is backed up. The lakes, the retention, literally everything is backed up big time and they need relief in a big way."
Jimmie Johnson had plans to go to Greece.
"I've waited 43 years so what's another few days," he tweeted Sunday.