Firestone 600 postponed after 71 laps; will resume on Aug. 27

The Firestone 600 will have to wait another day for its completion. Another two months, in fact.

The scheduled 248-lap event at Texas Motor Speedway – the ninth race of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season – was stopped after 71 laps today by heavy rain. INDYCAR and track officials announced that the race was suspended and will be completed Aug. 27 as a night race.

“We certainly want to come back and have a full race for the fans here in Texas,” said Jay Frye, INDYCAR president of competition and operations. “The people at TMS do a great job, so what we will do, per our rulebook, is start the race from where we stopped. So we will come back and start the race from that point.

“This is unique. It hasn’t happened for a little while, but there are a lot of unique things here and we’ll look forward to coming back Aug. 27.”

The race was originally scheduled for Saturday night, but lingering wet track conditions from daylong rain prevented it from starting. The 22-car field took the green flag at 2:48 p.m. ET today, but was able to complete only 71 laps on the 1.455-mile oval before storms returned. A race must complete at least half its lap distance to be considered official.

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