DAYTONA BEACH – Sweet smoke pierced through steady rain at the Daytona International Speedway, providing a tasty consolation to postponements of two days of racing.

Under large tents and a few yards away from 101,500 empty grandstand seats, four of the country’s top pitmasters were competing to make the best taco, with the winner facing chef and Food Network celebrity Michael Symon. The man who has shows like “Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out,” “Throwdown with Michael Symon” and “BBQ USA,” came to Daytona 500 weekend to film a pitch for a new cooking show. Cold and rain created another challenge but didn’t stop grills from slowly turning raw meat into delicious treats.

“It was crazy out there with all the rain,” said Josh Skipper, a member of Blue’s Hog. “It was wet, cold and nasty. The camera crew was there on Saturday and Michael came down on Sunday. We still had a good time, and the food turned out great.”

NASCAR’s Xfinity race was scheduled for Feb. 17, and the 500 was supposed to take the green flag a day later. Both races were pushed back to Monday night. Skipper, who lives on Fleming Island, often cooks for Brandt Racing and its Xfinity Series driver Justin Allgaier. Skipper fed Brandt and worked with Blues Hog in the taco throwdown. The featured dish for Brandt CEO Rick Brandt and co-sponsor Rev1 Energy of Tampa was a whole hog. Blues Hog won the 2022 Memphis in May, considered the world championship, with their whole hog.

“We prepped the hog on Saturday and had it going all night,” Skipper said. “They want me to do more NASCAR races. We’ll see where it goes.”

Blues Hog competed against Mike Johnson and Sugarfire Smokehouse, Brad Leighninger and Gettin’ Basted and Joe Pearce and Slaps BBQ. Blues Hog owner Tim Scheer said the teams had little advance notice, but they all quickly accepted the invitation.

“It was a good opportunity to do a little small talk with the other teams and do some marketing and stuff like that,” Scheer said.

Symon said he wanted to promote barbecues and travel to unique locations, Scheer said. “He wanted to see local barbecue and the different takes on it and shed a light on it. I think that’s what he’s trying to pitch (for the new show).”

There wasn’t anything more unique than cooking at the grandest stock car race in the world.

Skipper said he may put the road course race at the Circuit of the Americas track in Austin, Texas, on his schedule. Austin is home to many of the iconic barbecue joints worldwide, including Franklin Barbecue, where hungry customers generally get in line hours before the doors open at 11 a.m.

“Austin, I’m not scared of that,” Skipper said. “They (Brandt) want me at more races. I will go anywhere if it has to do with barbecue.”

And hopefully, the weather will be more accommodating.