WORLD NEWS | Heavy rain floods Chicago roads as NASCAR ends downtown street race and decides winner

CHICAGO, July 2 (AP) Heavy rain flooded Chicago streets Sunday, stranded cars and forced NASCAR officials to cancel the second half of the Xfinity Series race scheduled to take place downtown.

The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for several counties in the Chicago area, saying up to 6 inches of rain had fallen by noon on the outskirts of Cicero and Berwyn.

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Portions of Interstate 55 and Interstate 290 were closed due to flooding, Illinois State Police said, and at least 1,000 people were injured on Interstate 55 near Pulaski Road, the city’s north-south arterial, WLS-TV reported. 10 cars were trapped in the water. Trains were also suspended in parts of the city.

NASCAR officials had planned to finish the second half of the Xfinity Series in downtown on Sunday morning after the race was suspended due to lightning on Saturday.

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They announced around noon on Sunday that they had decided to call off the race due to rain and declared Cole Custer the winner.

NASCAR had originally scheduled a cup race downtown late Sunday afternoon. The game is still expected to take place.

The Chicago Cubs’ afternoon game against the Cleveland Guards at Wrigley Field has been postponed until its 4:05 p.m. start, WMAQ-TV reported. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a syndicated news feed, the latest staff may not have modified or edited the body of content)