Rain may put damper on NASCAR schedule

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Steady rain forced NASCAR to postpone the Nextel Cup race Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.

The 3M Performance 400 was rescheduled for 9 a.m. PDT today, but the forecast called for more rain today and possibly Tuesday.

It was the fourth time this year that a Cup race was rescheduled because of poor weather.

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said that if the 200-lap race was postponed both today and Tuesday, NASCAR would then have to decide whether to hold the race Wednesday or push it back to the end of the season.

Running the race as late as Wednesday is problematic because the Cup teams need time to move their cars and personnel to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in time for practice and qualifying ahead of the next race Saturday night. NASCAR’s Cup champion is determined by the Chase for the Cup, a 10-race playoff among the 12 drivers highest in points after the season’s first 26 races. There are four races left to decide which drivers qualify.

The first of the Chase races is scheduled at New Hampshire International Speedway on Sept. 16. But if the Michigan race can’t be held this week, New Hampshire would become the 26th race to decide the Chase field.

That means the final race of the year, currently scheduled Nov. 18 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida, would instead be held here in southern Michigan, possibly the day after Thanksgiving, Poston said.

But he emphasized that NASCAR would do everything possible to hold the Michigan race this week.

Current points leader and two-time Michigan winner Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports is to start on the pole.

Next to him on the front row will be Greg Biffle of Roush Fenway Racing.

During the rain delay, a top executive of Dale Earnhardt Inc. said the team hopes to name a replacement driver for departing Dale Earnhardt Jr. within the next two weeks.

“We’re trying to figure out who will fit in our driver lineup that complements the entire team,” said Max Siegel, DEI’s president of global operations.

Earnhardt is leaving his family team after this season to join Hendrick. But he will not take his car No. 8 with him, because he could not reach terms on a transfer with DEI, which holds the number under lease from NASCAR.

The failed talks were the latest example of the strained relations between Earnhardt and Teresa Earnhardt, his stepmother and DEI’s chief executive.

“It’s her number, it’s her decision, it’s just unfortunate,” Earnhardt said. “My personal feelings are disappointment but like I said, I kind of knew it was going to be hard to convince her to let us have it and that’s the case.”

Siegel said “I understand his frustration and his disappointment,” but that he had “no interest in re-opening those discussions and debating them in the media.”

Earnhardt said he and Hendrick hadn’t chosen a new number.

“We’ll just kind of get over the idea that we’re not going to be No. 8 no more, which I’m fine with, and hopefully my fans can do the same and we’ll build on a new identity,” he said.

Meanwhile, NASCAR team owner Richard Childress said he’s willing to talk to this year’s Indianapolis 500 winner, Dario Franchitti, about driving a stock car one day.

“We’re really good friends,” Childress said. “At some point he’s going to want to look at this series, and when he is I’ll be there to talk to him. But I think he’s got some other things he wants to accomplish right now.”

Childress also said he’ll decide within 45 days whether to add a fourth car and driver to his Cup team, which now consists of Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer.

james.peltz@latimes.com