Update: On-track activities on hold at Bristol because of rain

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- There was early good news followed by bad news regarding the weather today at Bristol Motor Speedway.

As of 9:30 a.m. ET, the sun was shining through a partly cloudy sky, with temperatures approaching a pleasant 70 degrees. That was the early good news.

The bad news is that then the rain arrived and the weather forecast for remainder of the day is gloomy, with isolated thunderstorms expected to pop up throughout the afternoon and into the evening. By 11:30 a.m. ET, the rain had started -- putting all on-track activities on indefinite delay.

Despite a break in the rain that allowed jet dryers to get on the track by 12:15 p.m. ET, the forecast for the rest of the day only gets more dicey.

The chance of rain increases to 55 percent by 1 p.m., 70 percent by 2 p.m. and 80 percent by 4 p.m., which is only 30 minutes prior to the scheduled beginning of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying (live on FS1).

The chance of rain, according to weather.com, remains at between 50 percent and 65 percent for the remainder of the day – which will likely make it difficult to dry the track even if the rain halts from time to time.

The first Monster Energy Cup Series practice was scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m., followed by XFINITY Series practices at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. before Cup qualifying. All will be televised on FS1, weather permitting -- but as of now, all on-track activities are on hold.

FOXSports.com will continue to provide updates as this story develops.