Rain forces Richmond postponement.

Persistent rain has forced NASCAR to postpone the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond until Sunday after just eleven caution flag laps were run.

After a rainy afternoon over the three-quarter mile Virginia oval the start of the 400-lap race, the tenth round of the 2007 season, was delayed slightly as NASCAR worked to dry the track during a brief respite from the wet stuff.

Even though pre-race ceremonies went ahead as planned and the 43 starting cars made it out onto the track itself, it soon became apparent that the surface wasn't race ready. NASCAR chose to start the race behind the safety car as a way of keeping the cars on track to quicken the drying process but almost as soon as they gave the one lap to green command the rains returned.

Poleman Jeff Gordon and fellow front row starter Carl Edwards led the field around for eleven laps before the rains returned, forcing NASCAR to red flag the race and bring the field to pit road.

With the track quickly becoming soaked and the rain not only intensifying overhead but also being forecast for much of the night, race officials had little option but to tell everyone to go home and come back on Sunday at 1pm local time where the entire 400 lap distance will (hopefully) be re-run.