The pit crew for Jeff Gordon kneels on pit row prior to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Jim Stewart 400. The Race was rained out Saturday night in Richmond, Va., and was rescheduled for today.

Richmond, Va. ? Rain washed out the NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Richmond International Raceway after only 12 caution laps Saturday night, forcing officials to postpone the event until today.

Following introductions and other prerace festivities, the race began on time, but still with jet dryers on the track and the cars circling under caution.

On the 12th lap, as a light drizzle that grew stronger fell, NASCAR saw the forecasts for more rain coming true, and ordered the cars to pit road. The next time they moved was to the garage, to wait to start all over at 12:15 p.m. today.

It’s the first time a Nextel Cup race at Richmond has been postponed since May 2002, when the event went off the next day and Tony Stewart earned the victory.

The rainout was something of a new experience for rookie Juan Pablo Montoya, who joined NASCAR this year after racing in CART and Formula One. The latter races in the rain, and Montoya said similar conditions yielded one of his more memorable races.

“Probably the best story is when half the field in Formula One wrecked in the same corner in Brazil,” the Colombian said, guessing that the race happened in 2003.

“It was raining hard, but there was like a river coming across the track.”