NASCAR Set For May 17 Darlington Return

NC Gov. Roy Cooper: Not ready for
business as usual

The governor of North Carolina delivered good news and bad news to NASCAR fans yesterday, extending the state’s stay-at-home order through May 8 and failing to take direct action on a request to allow the Coca-Cola 600 to be run as scheduled on May 24 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. 

Republican lawmakers had called on Gov. Roy Cooper to curtail his stay-at-home order and reopen the track, but he chose instead to continue as-is for the time being, while phase-in a more gradual return to normalcy in coming weeks. 

He said, “I’ve been in contact with NASCAR officials, track owners, team owners. They have come forward with a plan to try and protect their employees. So we’ll be coming forward with an announcement on that pretty soon.”

Cooper said NASCAR teams can return to work at their shops, if they maintain proper social distancing guidelines. He added that in his opinion, NASCAR has qualified as an essential business all along, and could have been working with restrictions in place. 

His comments do not necessarily clear the way for crewmembers to return to work, though, since local and county governments may still have restrictions of their own in place.

Cabarrus County – home of Hendrick Motorsports, Stewart Haas Racing, Roush Fenway, Chip Ganassi and JTG Daugherty Racing currently as a stay-at-home order in place that appears to prevent a return to work until next Tuesday. Mecklenburg County (home of Joe Gibbs Racing) amended its order last week to mirror whatever guidelines are put forth by the state, which could conceivably prevent teams from returning until the state order is withdrawn. Neighboring Iredell County currently has no countywide stay-at home order in effect. Adding to the confusion, the Hendrick Motorsports campus is partially located in Mecklenburg County, with most of its race shops in Cabarrus.

Darlington prepping to host
NASCAR's return?

Despite the uncertainty surrounding race shop reopening, the road now appears clear for NASCAR to return to the race track in three weeks. South Carolina’s Director of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Duane Parrish confirmed yesterday that Darlington Raceway will indeed host a race this spring.

He did not specify a date for the event, but multiple reports say that NASCAR is set to return to on-track competition at Darlington on May 17.

There is no word at this point on whether the track will run its traditional Southern 500 on that date – rescheduled from Labor Day weekend – or be awarded an additional, second date in an attempt to help make-up one of the race’s postponed by the COVID-19 shutdown. Track President Kerry Tharp has not yet commented on this week’s reports.

After Darlington, NASCAR will reportedly run the Coke 600 at Charlotte the following week, May 24. Prior to that, sources say that CMS could also host an additional, mid-week race on Wednesday night, May 20. Following those two events in Charlotte, sources say the NASCAR Cup Series will travel to Bristol Motor Speedway on Wednesday night, May 27, completing a run of four races in 11 days.

All events will include a strict testing regimen implemented by NASCAR for team members, track workers and media. Limits would be placed on who can come to the track, with personnel checked for fever before being admitted to the venue. At this time, all events are scheduled to be run without fans in the grandstands.