On Thursday, NASCAR confirmed that it plans to resume racing in May, starting with a 400-mile Cup race at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, May 17.
Another Cup event is scheduled for Wednesday, May 20 at the track — a 310-mile race. Then the series will run two races at Charlotte Motor Speedway — the Coca-Cola 600 on May 24 and a 310-mile race on May 27.
The Xfinity Series will have two races — a 200-miler at Darlington on Tuesday, May 19, and a 300-miler at Charlotte on Monday, May 25. One 200-mile Truck Series event is scheduled at Charlotte Motor Speedway for Tuesday, May 26.
All these races will be held without spectators in the grandstands.
“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,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer. “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.”
NASCAR’s events will be one-day shows, and the sanctioning body lists the following items as part of a safety health plan in collaborations with local and state governments, the CDC, and the OSHA:
– Mandated use of personal protective equipment throughout the event.
– Health screenings for all individuals prior to entering the facility, while inside the facility and exiting the facility.
– Social distancing protocols throughout the event.
– Strict limits on the number of individuals who are granted access into each facility.
NASCAR has eliminated practices for all events and will only host qualifying for the Coke 600. It created one-day events so teams are able to arrive at the track from the Charlotte Metropolitan area and leave the track to return to the shops without having to stop overnight.
The industry hasn’t been on-track since March 8 at Phoenix Raceway. Eight points-paying Cup events have been postponed since the coronavirus pandemic started putting non-essential businesses, like sports, in the U.S. on hiatus.
NASCAR wants to run 36 Cup races as planned since its economic model largely depends on revenue from its television contracts, which call for 36 events. Teams, for example, get about a quarter of the revenue from the TV deals with Fox Sports and NBC Sports but don’t get paid until after the races transpire. Many teams have been forced to furlough employees, but race shops have begun opening again this week as they have been permitted by the North Carolina government to prepare racecars.
Some tracks will lose dates since Darlington and Charlotte are hosting two Cup events in the spring. The playoff schedule is going to remain untouched as long as possible, but NASCAR has called its schedule a “fluid situation,” and it is subject to change.
