In some ways, it’s fitting NASCAR’s weather luck ran out on the same weekend that Bobby Hamilton told everyone he’s beginning cancer treatments.

For the first time since April 7, 2002, at Texas Motor Speedway, a Nextel Cup race did not at least begin on its scheduled day as rain pushed the Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway back to Monday.

Atlanta also was the site of the most recent Cup race that stopped one day and resumed the next when in October 2003 Jeff Gordon won a race completed on Monday after rain interrupted.

Last Thursday night, as the NASCAR circus gathered around the 1.54-mile track, Hamilton and his team held a cookout outside his motor home, parked so that it overlooked Turn 1.

As they ate barbecue and swapped stories, the subject of Monday races, ironically, came up.

Hamilton won four races in his Nextel Cup career, and two of them came in races delayed until Monday. The first was at Rockingham in the fall of 1997 and the second was the following April at Martinsville.

He raced in last week’s NASCAR Truck race at Atlanta, finishing 12th, just hours after walking into the media center and telling everyone about his diagnosis.

“I’m not quitting,” Hamilton said. “I’m not that weak.”

Hamilton is one of those guys who doesn’t take himself too seriously, and goodness knows racing could use a lot more of those. But cancer, of course, is a very serious thing. Hamilton knows he has a serious fight on his hands.

And he’s ready to get to it.

Monday, as the Cup teams gathered again at Atlanta to race, Hamilton headed to Vanderbilt University’s hospital to start treatment to fight the cancer that was discovered in his neck when he noticed the swelling wouldn’t go down after he’d had wisdom teeth removed late last year.

At the team cookout Thursday, nobody talked of chemotherapy or cancer. Hamilton was too busy swapping stories and enjoying the company.

Until last week, Hamilton had told only a few people about his diagnosis. In a sport where secrets usually spread faster than a stain on a new shirt, the news surprised virtually everyone. There was little time to react before another race weekend began to unfold.

So Sunday’s clouds provided a chance to say good luck to a good man.

Here’s to Bobby Hamilton.

May there be only blue skies and sunshine in his forecast.