One Lap of America: Texas World Speedway Partially Underwater

I thought Texas was the place where I’d finally get warm, but instead, we all got dumped on by an unbelievable amount of cold, driving rain. Still, I really dug the slightly dilapidated Texas World Speedway, because with part of the course being a banked oval, it’s probably the most NASCAR-like track on the One Lap circuit (they used to race ARCA here, before the surface got too deteriorated). There wouldn’t've been any NASCAR action here today though, as the whole place was absolutely drenched with rain, with water collecting in treacherous ponds all over the track, paddock, and pit lane.

The downpour made for some pretty interesting racing. Rankins got some in-car video of a lap in which he pulled off a real rally-splash, throwing a wave so huge that it nearly drowned the STi when it came back down—we’re going to try to get that posted tonight when we stop. One of the BMWs nearly caused a pile-up when it spun in turn 1 and ended up in the ditch, having to be pulled out by a wrecker. Amazingly, the driver rejoined the starting grid to do it all over again, until a track official scurried over to send him packing to the garage. The bimmer threw indignant rooster tails as it cruised off the track through the pit lane lake. More sodden pics after the jump.