NASCAR's Clash postponed to Wednesday due to historic snowfall in North Carolina

WINSTON, SALEM, N.C. (AP) — A bomb cyclone over North Carolina forced NASCAR to push its preseason exhibition to Wednesday night because the snow-covered roads are too dangerous for teams and fans to get to historic Bowman-Gray Stadium.

The Clash had been scheduled to run Sunday night and has now been postponed twice, with a schedule adjustment, because of the intense snowfall that blanketed the area. NASCAR first condensed the race into a one-day, Sunday-only show, then pushed the race to Monday.

NASCAR said Sunday it was moving it to Wednesday evening “due to the impacts of historic winter weather across the North Carolina region.”

The race is now scheduled to run one week before qualifying for the Daytona 500, at Daytona International Speedway, where The Clash was held from 1979 through 2022.

The Clash went to a temporary track inside the Los Angeles Memorial Stadium for three seasons, then moved to its grassroots anchor at Bowman Gray last year.

Its first year was a success but the second running has been interrupted by the bomb cyclone, known to meteorologists as an intense, rapidly strengthening weather system. It contributed to nearly a foot (30 centimeters) of snow in and around Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city and home base for the majority of the NASCAR teams.

The snowfall represented a top-five snow event all time in Charlotte, said Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist with weather prediction center in College Park, Maryland.

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NBA forced to push back Spurs-Magic game after winter storm, travel issues prevent Spurs from leaving Charlotte

After a winter-storm delay and a plane-equipment issue, the San Antonio Spurs are finally on their way home to play the Orlando Magic. But in order to give the Spurs adequate time to prepare, the NBA has now pushed back the contest to 9 p.m. ET.

The NBA anticipated weather would be an issue Saturday. With the Spurs unable to leave Charlotte due to a winter storm, the league initially pushed the game time back from 3 p.m. ET to 6 p.m. ET.

But the Spurs experienced a minor equipment issue on their plane out of Charlotte on Sunday, forcing the team to stop in Atlanta so it could switch to a new plane. That unexpected delay forced the league to push back the game’s start time to 9 p.m. ET.

The Spurs were initially supposed to leave Charlotte following San Antonio’s 111-106 loss to the Hornets on Saturday. But Charlotte saw 11 inches of snow during the day, causing the Spurs to reschedule their flight to Sunday, hoping things would be clearer by then.

That proved to be true … but then their plane experienced an equipment issue.

After a stop in Atlanta, the Spurs’ plane finally got off the ground around 2:22 p.m. ET. It’s a two-hour flight to get back to San Antonio. From there, the team will presumably head straight to the arena to prepare for Sunday’s game against the Magic. 

Following Saturday’s loss, the Spurs sit at 32-16 entering Sunday, good for third place in the Western Conference. The Magic, meanwhile, are 25-22 and in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. 

The travel issues could wind up playing a significant role in Sunday’s contest. The two teams have already met once this season, with the Spurs picking up a narrow 114-112 win over the Magic back in early December. 

Spurs players will need to dig deep following a difficult couple hours of travel if they want to push past the Magic on Sunday.