TV explains the postponements

[Desmond]

At Race Talk, Ken asked why NASCAR pulled the plug on the Stater Bros. 300 on Saturday long before it did the same for the Auto Club 500 on Sunday.  The answer has to do with the television networks on which they were seen.

ESPN2, which held the rights to the 300-miler, had the bass fishing "Super Bowl" tournament as the next program.  ESPN owns the tourney organizer, appropriately called BASS.  Following that was a basketball game in the Bracket Busters event, organized by ESPN Regional Television.  So I feel that ESPN2 used any excuse to tell NASCAR to cancel the event.

On the other hand, Fox could take all the time it needed to show the Cup race.  This was also Oscar night, so Fox had chosen to air comedy show reruns later that night.  (Also, there had already been 87 laps run, so the goal was to get to 125 if needed.)

[Vivian]

Personally, I thought they stuck around so late that night so they could at least try to make half the race so they could call it....