Racing on ovals is at the mercy of the weather more than most other outdoor sporting events. Such was the case July 30 at Michigan International Speedway when a capricious rain storm that pelted the facility postponed the start of the Firestone Indy 400 by 2½ hours.

Uncertainty of a start time – or if the race would be postponed to July 31 because of more rain or lack of daylight – forced the hand of ABC Sports, which had expended its 3:30-6 p.m. window. Affiliates are required to carry 'ABC World News Sunday' and prime-time programming.

Also, without a schedule, moving the broadcast to one of ABC's sister networks was complicated. ESPN elected to proceed with its scheduled 'live' programming both on ESPN and ESPN2. The taped broadcast of the race won by Helio Castroneves was shown at midnight and 2 p.m. July 31 on ESPN2.

Behind the scenes, contingencies were addressed by Indy Racing League, track officials, the promoter, and the TV partner early in the day. Rain was forecast, but the storm was expected to pass earlier in the afternoon, which could have prompted a shorter delay to the green flag.

Track drying began at 4 p.m., but drizzle began soon afterward. Efforts began in earnest about 4:20, with a 5:35 p.m. race start projected based on information from track officials about how long it usually takes to dry the 2-mile oval. All was proceeding according to plan before 'weepers' – water seaping through cracks in the asphalt – turned up in Turn 3.

'Ultimately, we care for the safety of drivers and that we put on a good racing product for the fans,' said John Lewis, the Indy Racing League's vice president for league development. 'There is no room to compromise there. It's always make the right decision.'

The cars started the race under a running yellow at 6:10 p.m. The last time an IndyCar Series race was postponed to another day was 2000 at Texas Motor Speedway.

'We had hints of rain all weekend, but it was really about 10 or 10:30 Sunday morning that the radar showed a fairly large weather cell moving our direction,' said Lewis, who was the funnel for communication between all parties to not 'get too many stories out there.'

'You try to anticipate when the rain will come, and you try to anticipate how long the rain will take place. From there, you build backward. We knew it would be daylight for race car visibility until about 8:30. We knew last year's race was 2 hours, 23 minutes. We keep those records as does television, and we compare those notes. We knew we needed to start this race no later than 6:30. You get with the racetrack and discuss its drying equipment and what is typical amount of time it takes to dry the track (1:15-1:30).'

Teams were updated at the morning drivers' meeting, and ABC Sports officials were advised earlier in the day.

'If we weren't attempting to dry the racetrack by 4:30, we would have to reconvene and make the tough decision if this wasn't going to work today or what are the options,' said Lewis, who already had a 2 p.m. July 31 TV window for a postponement.

'As the track started to dry, we're constantly communicating with safety teams, the race teams, the promoter and the broadcast partner. We hit all those hard points, but what we didn't anticipate was the weeper issues. No racetrack can predict that.'

In Race Control, IMS Productions vice president and executive producer Buddy McAtee was in constant communication with ABC Sports.

'The dialogue is pretty fluid,' Lewis said. 'We were trying to green flag the Michigan race at 5:35 and ended up going at 6:10. That was about our hard drop, saying if we want the fans to see all 200 laps – which is our goal – we had to get it started at that time because we were going to run out of daylight on the back end.'

Anticipation the later-arriving weather cell by moving up the start time of the race wasn't an option because of the same TV window, fan issues and IndyCar Series teams preparing for a 3:30 p.m. start.

'Everybody would have their challenges,' Lewis said.

Ultimately, the fast-paced race (third-fastest average speed in IndyCar Series history) was a crowd-pleaser. Which is the goal of the race promoter and sanctioning Indy Racing League.