NASCAR Weather: Storms forecast at Atlanta as Cup Series race faces worrying forecast

NASCAR could have yet another rain-affected weekend this time out at Atlanta, with the weather forecast looking dicey not just for Saturday and Sunday, but also beyond.

The good news is that Friday's ARCA Menards Series running is likely to be unaffected by any rain or storms by the time its weekend-opening race kicks off...but that's mostly because it's not being held at Atlanta. The rest of the news is bad news.

Saturday looks like it will be disrupted at points, with showers 'likely' in the afternoon and thunderstorms likely after 5pm. For those who haven't got race weekend times tattooed on the backs of their eyelids, Cup Series qualifying is scheduled for 4:30pm and the O'Reilly Series race is set for 7pm, right in the storm zone.

The chance of precipitation is listed at 60 per cent. However, one possible saving grace is that any rain is likely to dry quickly once it stops falling, with temperatures expected to range up into the 90s.

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NASCAR Cup Series weather forecast for Atlanta

Sunday's forecast doesn't look much better, with showers and thunderstorms likely after 11am and the National Weather Service listing a 70 per cent chance of precipitation in the day, and an 80 per cent chance in the night.

With the Quaker State 400 scheduled to start at 7pm, and its last three iterations all clocking in around three and a half hours, that looks quite a lot like a race which might be disrupted by the skies.

The biggest problem, besides the obvious? If the race ended up being postponed until Monday...the forecast only gets worse.

Monday's forecast is for showers and possible thunderstorms from 8am, with a 90 per cent chance of precipitation. Those aren't great racing conditions!

Of course, this is all just projected. Weather forecasts, as we've seen a thousand times, aren't always accurate – and the most likely thing to happen isn't always what actually happens.

Let's hope things clear up and we get a full 400 miles of racing as scheduled!