How’s The Weather For The Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Race?

The 67th running of the Coca-Cola 600 is ready to roll this Sunday, May 24, at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, and cloudy weather with a slight chance of spotty showers is in the forecast. 

The green flag is set to drop at 6:00 P.M. EDT.

Latest Forecast

While the active weather pattern across the Southeast is bringing much-needed drought relief, we would like that rain to take a break for this race. 

And the current forecast is actually largely in agreement. The bulk of the heaviest rainfall on Sunday is more focused on the Southern Plains, but some outliers may try to creep north and east. 

Rainfall totals are expected to be so small that, should any rain fall, it shouldn’t cause a problem. With the clouds over the area, temperatures will be awesome, settling in the 70s and dropping to the 60s as the night progresses. Hey, that beats the 90s and brutal sun in my opinion.

We are slightly concerned about the chance of a rumble of thunder, which would cause a delay regardless of substantial rainfall.

Past Delays

NASCAR is well prepared for spotty showers. But should there be more substantial rainfall, delays may need to be issued. 

The latest delay: The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was originally slated for Friday, May 22, 2026. Yes, that's recent. 

This race continues to be pushed back as scattered showers were more prominent Friday and lingered into Saturday. 

For the Coca-Cola 600, we don’t have to go back very far. 

In 2024, there was enough rainfall that fell after the halfway point that the race was called with 151 laps to go, leaving Christopher Bell as the winner. 

Just the year before, there was another rain delay, this time rescheduling the race from Sunday to Monday.

Fortunately, the forecast doesn’t look as intense for tomorrow, so here’s to a nice, clean and slightly cooler race. 

Rob Shackelford is a meteorologist and climate scientist at weather.com. He received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Georgia studying meteorology and experimenting with alternative hurricane forecasting tools.