David Poole Max Doppler 3000 says ...

2:30 p.m. Monday -- Yeah, it's raining again at Michigan.

It's not raining hard. Not nearly as hard as it was overnight when Kasey Kahne said it was keeping him awake as he tried to sleep inhis motorhome.

But it is raining enough to discourage most of the optimism that was spreading through the garage an hour ago.

NASCAR had the teams start rolling the cars toward pit road about 2 p.m. The jet dryers were on the track and crews were setting up their war wagons on pit road.

People were talking about the "hole" opening up in the weather and how there was a "window" in which it looked like we could get at least 101 laps -- halfway plus one -- in to make it official.

All around me in the media center, people are looking at weather radar on their computers. A few minutes ago, I took two quarters out of my pocket and flipped them over to two guys sitting across from me.

"Take this," I said. "This is something I just developed. I call it David Poole Max Doppler 3000. Heads means it's going to rain. Tails means it's not. It tells you as much as anything you're looking at."

I've stopped worrying about it. I don't fly home until Wednesday now, whether they race today, tomorrow or whenever. I did enough laundry last night to tide me over until then.

I got to the track this morning about 6:30 to do the Sirius radio show, which starts at 7. The garage opened at 9, so the gates near the building where the radio rooms are were locked.

I got on a golf cart with somebody from the track to ride around the back of the garage where a gate was open. It didn't have a roof. It took us maybe 3 minutes, and I looked like a drowned rat by the time we got there. The guy who was driving me had to ride back, though, so I guess I was lucky.

The jet dryers are still working, perhaps fighting a losing battle (we'll see). From the media center, I can see a few rows of grandstands and there are race fans sitting there, waiting and hoping. You have to appreciate that.

Yesterday afternoon, when NASCAR mentioned that in a worst-case scenario we might have to come back up here the week after Thanksgiving, some of the people sitting around me started getting hotel rooms for that weekend. And people think I am a pessimist.

All I can do is wait.

While I do, I will sit here and try to think more about why all week the local newscasters in Detroit have seemed obsessed with the story of a hurricane approaching and passing Jamaica and Grand Cayman. That's a long way from here, right?

Sort of like home.