NASCAR Ready to Return to the Track
It’s been seven long weeks since we’ve seen live sports from any of the major professional sports leagues thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are signs of optimism bubbling up through a variety of different sources regarding potential return dates for different sports. On Thursday, one of those rumors turned concrete, giving sports fans something that they can solidly look at and realize that the light at the tunnel is finally drawing closer after this long stretch of nothingness.
In an announcement on Thursday, NASCAR announced that they’ll resume their season in May. The opening race to get back to turning and burning along with yanking and banking comes on May 17 at Darlington Raceway. That race, a 400-mile journey, will mark the first race for the circuit since March 8 at Phoenix, when Joey Logano won his second race of the young season. NASCAR has run only four races so far this year but still plans on getting a full 36-race schedule in before the year is over, which is going to make for some hectic scheduling this summer.
As it pans out, the opening race at Darlington on May 17 is the start of a loaded two-week schedule of racing. In addition to that race, there will be NASCAR Cup races at Darlington on May 20 along with a pair at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24 and May 27. The May 24 race is the Coca-Cola 600, marking the 60th straight season that the race would take place on Memorial Day weekend. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper gave the green light to that race earlier this week, which helped pave the way to the return to the asphalt. As expected, there will be no fans in attendance for these races
Along with the NASCAR Cup races in that span, there are Xfinity Series races at Darlington on May 19 and at Charlotte on May 25. The Gander Trucks series also has a race during that stretch as they’ll race at Charlotte on May 26. All of the races will be televised: the May 17 and May 24 NASCAR Cup series races will be aired on FOX while each of the other five races will be picked up by Fox Sports 1. There won’t be any practice sessions for these races and qualifying will only take place for the Coca-Cola 600. One thing that was made clear was that Darlington would not lose the Southern 500, which is scheduled for Labor Day weekend.
Darlington was likely selected as the first track out of the gate for NASCAR’s return due to its proximity to Charlotte. That limits the travel that teams need to deal with and the ability to resupply in a timely manner. It also cuts down on having large numbers of people taking over another community as Darlington is about two hours from Charlotte. NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell had this to say about the return of racing:
“NASCAR and its teams are eager and excited to return to racing, and have great respect for the responsibility that comes with a return to competition. NASCAR will return in an environment that will ensure the safety of our competitors, officials and all those in the local community. We thank local, state and federal officials and medical experts, as well as everyone in the industry, for the unprecedented support in our return to racing, and we look forward to joining our passionate fans in watching cars return to the track.”
The circuit also announced that they won’t give COVID-19 tests to the drivers, opting instead for temperature checks. That keeps the tests in play for those who need them more and doesn’t cut into the tests that each of the states have at this stage of things. One big thing that NASCAR is banking on is getting eyes on their product from a sports-starved society. The hope that fans, who haven’t seen competition in what would be more than two months by that point in time, will tune in to see live action.
NASCAR has taken all the right steps so far and this is exciting news for those of us in the sports world. Let’s drop the green flag and get back to it.