Rain brings unusual and abrupt shortened end to Xfinity street race in Chicago

Due to ongoing weather issues, Cole Custer has been declared winner of the inaugural The Loop 121 NASCAR Xfinity Series street race in downtown Chicago.

Custer, who drives for Stewart-Haas Racing, led the race Saturday when it was abruptly halted due to the threat of lightning within an eigh-mile radius of the track, prompting NASCAR to issue a shelter-in-place warning for fans in attendance of the downtown Grant Park street course layout.

The race was scheduled to resume Sunday morning at 11 am ET, but heavy rain overnight, coupled with flash flood warnings and extensive rain on the racetrack that sweepers could not keep up with led NASCAR officials to decide to give the win to Custer and not resume the race.

It was a rare instance in that NASCAR did not insist the race at least reach the official halfway point of the event, which would have needed only three more laps to attain that level.

Rain has stopped for the most part in the Chicago area as of 2 pm ET and efforts continue to try and dry the track in time for the 5 pm ET scheduled start of the Grant Park 220 NASCAR Cup race.

However, there's more bad news on the horizon, literally and physically; more rain is on the way. We'll keep readers up to date as conditions warrant.

In the meantime, here's stats from the shortened Xfinity event: