FORT WORTH, Texas, April 7 (UPI) -- Sunday's NASCAR Samsung/RadioShack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway was postponed Sunday to Monday at noon EDT due to rain that has hindered activity at the track all weekend.
Veteran Bill Elliott will head the 43-car field after a record speed of 194.224 miles per hour set in Friday's qualifying.
Saturday's Busch series O'Reilly 300 started nearly four hours late due to rain and was called after 116 of 200 scheduled laps when it started pouring again.
Already NASCAR's all-time fastest driver with a 212.809 mph at Talladega in 1987 in the days before restrictor plates, Elliott used his Dodge Intrepid to knock Elliott Sadler off the pole.
The speeds are so fast and the grip on the track is so good, many of the drivers complained that the G-forces entering the turns could lead to some extreme stress at the 1 1/2-mile oval.
Elliott admitted his pole-winning effort was aided by a lengthy delay after Frank Kimmel crashed in the first turn. By the time the track was cleared, cloud cover had cooled the racing surface, allowing Elliott to gain an advantage.
During the 1980s, Elliott was NASCAR's fastest driver, regularly boosting the times at superspeedways Daytona and Talladega. But when Bobby Allison's airborne car nearly cleared the fence in front of a crowded grandstand in 1987, series officials began the restrictor-plate era to keep speeds under 200 mph.
Those plates are used only at those two tracks, however, so the ovals at Texas and Atlanta have become the fastest tracks on the circuit. Elliott also won the pole at Atlanta last month with a lap of 191.542 mph.
Friday's pole was the 53rd of Elliott's career, the most of any active Winston Cup driver.
