CONCORD, N.C. – Rain or shine, there will be a winner crowned Sunday at Sonoma Raceway.
This weekend – for the first time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – rain tires will be introduced to road-course racing.
As part of the 2015 racing package, NASCAR announced that it would work alongside Goodyear to provide rain tires should conditions warrant at road courses.
It is similar to the rules previously in place for the XFINITY Series and Camping World Truck Series.
"That'll make it exciting," Jimmie Johnson laughed when discussing the new rule last fall. "So what we've seen so far, it's not necessarily the fact that we'll race in rain, but we'll certainly race in the wet. It's provided some very entertaining (XFINITY) races and I can only imagine what it will be like in Cup."
In addition to the rain tires, the cars will have mandatory wipers, a defogger and a rear flashing rain light installed for the event weekend.
It doesn’t look like rain at Sonoma this time around – there’s just a 10 percent chance of precipitation on Sunday according to Weather.com.
But if it comes, the cars will be ready.