When NASCAR and track officials made the call to postpone the weekend's events at Richmond International Raceway (RIR), most agreed it was the best thing to do. Rains were approaching and it appeared things were going to get much worse as the night went on. Citing the safety of the fans and the competitors, the decision was made and the races postponed until Sunday.

The only problem with the situation was not long after the call was made, the rain stopped. Granted, the skies opened up and dropped a good amount of rain on the speedway within an hour of the decision, yet, after that hour of hard rain, the skies cleared and the stars came out. The wind everyone was worried about was never there, the rain - while heavy at times - was over by almost 7:30 p.m. ET. By midnight, the winds and heavy rain were still not a factor.

Looking at the latest weather predictions for the area on Sunday, things are still up in the air whether it will rain again or not. It is clear Saturday will be feel the brunt of Hanna's fury, however the storm's path, while somewhat predictable, can always change and there is no guarantee it will go away and they will get both races in on Sunday.

Many at RIR on Friday questioned NASCAR's decision to stick to the scheduled plan of events. With the knowledge of weather approaching, NASCAR in no way attempted to push up either Cup Series or Nationwide Series qualifying. Instead, from the time final practice for the Cup cars ended around 1 p.m. ET, until the Nationwide cars were pushed out to qualify around 4 p.m. ET, there was no on-track activity.

The sun was out; the clouds were approaching, but were not a threat, yet NASCAR and track officials did nothing to attempt to set the fields by speed rather than points. With almost three hours of no activity on the track, both NASCAR and track officials wasted a key opportunity.

The same goes for Friday night's Nationwide event. It seemed NASCAR and track officials were unwilling to wait to see if it was at all possible to complete at least half of the 250-lap event. Obviously, safety took top priority in making this decision, yet it appears both NASCAR and RIR officials could have been a bit more flexible in attempting to get as much completed on Friday as possible.

With no action on the track on Saturday, officials, fans and competitors alike hope Hanna heads out of town by Sunday and both races can be completed - yet, as much as they'd like to, NASCAR cannot tell Mother Nature what to do, and sometime she simply will not cooperate.