COMMENTARY: On Race... And Racing

Phelps: "The time is now to listen."

Just before the start of yesterday’s “Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500” at Atlanta Motor Speedway, NASCAR took the unprecedented step of stopping its race cars on the front straightaway during the final pre-race parade lap, for sanctioning body president Steve Phelps to deliver an address expressing NASCAR’s support for improved race relations and an end to the social unrest that currently threatens to tear this nation apart.

“Our country is in pain and our people are justifiably angry, demanding to be heard,’’ said Phelps, as the field sat silent before an empty AMS grandstand. “The black community and all people of color have suffered in our country, and it has taken far too long for us to hear their demands for change. Our sport must do better. Our country must do better.

"The time is now to listen, to understand and to stand against racism and racial injustice," Phelps added. "We ask our drivers and all our fans to join us in this mission; to take a moment of reflection, to acknowledge that we must do better as a sport, and join us as we now pause and take a moment to listen."

His comments were followed by 30 seconds of silence, and when the cars re-fired, FOX Sports aired a video featuring current and former Cup Series drivers including Darrell Wallace, Jr.  Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. expressing their support for improved race relations and an end to discrimination.

Wallace, currently NASCAR’s only African American national series driver, wore a black T-shirt with the words "I Can’t Breathe" during pre-race ceremonies, commemorating the final words of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of a Minneapolis, MN police officer recently triggered mass protests in all 50 states, demanding an end to police brutality against people of color.

Wallace has been the sport’s most outspoken voice in recent days, telling Dale Earnhardt, Jr., on the “Dale Jr. Download” podcast of his reaction to the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery while jogging in Georgia recently, Kyle Larson’s use of the N-word earlier this season and instances of discrimination and racial profiling from his own life, including the fatal shooting of his cousin by a police officer in 2003.

“I was running around the (High School) gym with all the other brothers and sisters, and all of a sudden, I hear a scream,” he recalled. “Like the worst scream that you’d want to hear. Not like a `somebody-scared-you’ scream, like something bad had just happened. And I look over and I see my mom running out the door. She had just found out my cousin had been shot and killed by a police officer. Unarmed.

“I was young. I didn’t understand it. We lost a family member. But now, seeing everything come full circle, I totally get it.”

Wallace attributed the shooting to a convenience store clerk “who happened to be white (and) felt threatened that there were more African Americans and that something bad was going to happen. So she called the cops. The police officer ordered my cousin Sean to put his hands up, and he did. The officer walked away, (my cousin) went to grab his phone to call his mom because he was scared and he was shot and killed by (another) police officer.

Bubba Wallace

“People were having a good time, not bothering anybody. But somehow, people are afraid. Why are you afraid of black people? That’s the thing I don’t understand. We’re minding our own business… having a good time and somebody’s life was taken. It happened to my family member.

“I’ve dealt with my own struggles… of getting pulled up at stoplights and having guns drawn,” he recalled. “Not pointed at me, but out of their holster ready to do something. It’s the comments that they made (afterwards) that piss me off the most.

‘Can you afford this car? This is a nice car.’

And I said, ‘Yes, sir, I can.’ What I wanted to say is, ‘Yeah, I’ll (buy) you one on Monday, I’ll (buy) your momma one on Tuesday and I’ll have the rest of your family one on Wednesday. That’s how much money I make.’

“But I didn’t. I let it go because one wrong move, because I’m black, could have had me on the pavement saying, ‘I can’t breathe.'”

Germain Racing driver Ty Dillon also spoke eloquently in the aftermath of Floyd’s death, posting a statement on Instagram that said in part, “I never want to be seen as someone who is silent on the subject of racism and social injustice.

“I don’t care if I ever win a race or a championship in my life, or lose every follower or sponsor that I have,” he said. “But when my children grow older and I take my last breath, I want to be sure that I was on the right side of what I felt is going on in history. I just wanted to stop and say, `This is where I stand.’ At the end of the day, this is what I believe in and I’ll stand up for what I believe in.’”

Dillon and Wallace also co-hosted a 30-minute Instagram Live conversation, discussing the state of race relations in the United States.

“I’ve known (Bubba) my whole career,” said an emotional Dillon. “To hear the stories about how he was treated in some of those situations -- knowing Bubba’s character and knowing him as a human being -- that blew my mind. I never thought Bubba would have gone through anything like that.

“Sometimes, it’s easy for us who don’t know -- as a white man or a white person in general -- we don’t know these stories. We don’t ask the right questions to become informed. We all need to have conversations in our communities to create change.”

Phelps’ pre-race statement Sunday was sure to produce a reaction, and it has.

"I will listen and learn..."

The social media response simultaneously illustrated the best and worst that our fan base has to offer. The vast majority of reaction was supportive of the sanctioning body, but there were other, more vitriolic responses that illustrated just how far we have to go as a nation, and as a sport.

The events of the last two weeks have been both tragic and horrifying. The slaying of George Floyd and the protests that followed have sent this country into a tailspin, forcing mangy of us to re-evaluate our personal stands on racism and discrimination.

Until recently, it has been fairly easy for many of us to remain on the sidelines, saying little or nothing about a situation that did not directly affect us.

Raised in the second-whitest state in the Union, I grew up with very little understanding of what it is like to be a person of color in the United States of America. I grew up – quite literally – with ONE black friend, and only after I moved south a decade or so ago did I come to appreciate the true depth of the divide between races in this county.

The only time I’ve ever been pulled over by the police was when a heavy right foot caused me to stray slightly (or not so slightly) above the posted speed limit. Never – not once – did the police officer in question feel the need to have his finger on the trigger of a gun, or comment on whether I should have been able to afford the car I was driving at the time.

No traffic stop has ever caused me to fear for my life. I have never lost a single minute of sleep worrying that my daughters might be shot on their way home from work one evening, simply because of the color of their skin, or because they strayed into a neighborhood where someone felt they did not belong.

Until any those things happen to me, I am wholly disqualified to preach tolerance and patience to the African American community. Until those things happen to me, I have no business criticizing Olympic athletes Vincent Matthews and Wayne Collett for raising their gloved fists in protest on the medal podium at the 1972 Summer Games. I have no right to look down upon Muhammad Ali for refusing to go to Vietnam and fight for a country that treated him like a second-class citizen. And I have no place denouncing Colin Kaepernick for taking a knee on the NFL sideline.

After refusing to pay attention to those (and thousands of other) peaceable, passive protests, can we honestly be surprised when certain segments of the African American community grow frustrated and become violent?

I have come to understand that we cannot.

There are some bad cops in the world. The events of the last few weeks have provided far more evidence of that fact than any reasonable observer could possibly require. If you continue to deny the existence of racist cops, you’re simply not paying attention. There are also some bad protestors out there; people willing to turn a peaceful demonstration into an opportunity to loot, burn and line their pockets under the cover of righteous indignation.

But the vast majority of people – on both sides of the picket line – are good people; people with hearts free of hate and discrimination, determined to do things the right way. If you’re willing to look past the fiery headlines and hardline clichés, you’ll see hundreds of cops taking a knee to decry the brutality within their own ranks. You’ll see protesters standing with their arms linked together, protecting a policeman separated from his unit and threatened by the angry mob. You’ll see athletes like Lebron James, Evander Kane, Bubba Wallace and Ty Dillon, speaking out against inequality despite the backlash that most certainly will follow from the darkest corners of our society.

It’s time for us to follow their leads and take a firm and righteous stand against the racists, the haters, the discriminators, murderers and looters among us. It’s time we take the spotlight away from the corrupt minority and focus on the rest us, the ones who understand that there is only one race -- the human race – and are no longer willing to tolerate people who judge each other solely by the color of their skin, or their uniform.

This is not a “one side or the other” argument. It is possible to be staunchly pro-Law Enforcement while still decrying the “Thin Blue Line” mentality that has prompted far too many good cops to turn their heads when their colleagues act badly. It is possible to support the African American communities right to protest while still bemoaning the destruction of businesses owned by people innocent of any wrongdoing.

Nobody is “all right” these days, and nobody is “all wrong.” There is room for improvement on all sides.

NASCAR’s Phelps was spot-on yesterday in his call for change, and his words needed to be heard from a sport that has spent far too much time over the years huddled – like many of us – on the sidelines of a battle that did not seem to be ours to fight. There have been a few “shut up and race” reactions from people unwilling (or too ignorant) to honestly assess the way this country continues to do business, but those reactions are like the last brittle leaves on a dying tree, about to be swept away – one by one – by the undeniable winds of change. 

The time for silent support has passed. It’s time for us to rethink old thoughts, re-examine old attitudes and begin treating each other like the one unified family we should always have been.

It’s time to stop responding to the plea of “Black Lives Matter” with the paper-thin meme of “All Lives Matter.”

Yes, all lives do matter. But when your neighbor’s house is burning down, all houses don’t require the immediate assistance of the Fire Department.

The African American community is ablaze today, and after nearly 250 years as One Nation Under God, it’s time for us to something about it, once and for all.

COMMENTARY: Nashville Resurrection A Gutsy Ploy That Has Its Risks

NASCAR and Dover Motorsports, Inc. confirmed today that the NASCAR Cup Series will return to Nashville Superspeedway next season; the first major league motorsports event to take place there in nearly a decade.

In its prime, the 1.33-mile concrete oval -- located approximately 35 miles southeast of Nashville in Lebanon, Tennessee – hosted four major race weekends each season, headlined by the NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Series, along with IndyCar.

While attendance was good early in its 20-year run, ticket sales plummeted dramatically in the late 2000s, prompting Dover Motorsports to close the gates in August of 2011. At least two subsequent attempts to sell the track fell through, with the property being used most recently as an automobile storage facility. The track has not been part of the NASCAR discussion for nearly a decade, until rumors of its resurrection began to circulate late yesterday. In fact, the legendary Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway – located in metropolitan Nashville – has dominated the headlines in recent weeks, with talk of it own return to the NASCAR calendar.

Why the Superspeedway, instead of the Fairgrounds?

The answer to that question is interesting and multi-faceted, and addresses needs both current and future.

Simply put, a return to the Fairgrounds track is not an option without major improvements and renovations to the facility. Those projects cannot be undertaken without a substantial infusion of public capital, and the purse strings are currently controlled by Nashville mayor John Cooper and the Fairgrounds Board; neither of whom have been willing to commit money to the track in the past.

NSS has been silent for a decade.

So the question is not, “Which  Nashville track should we race at in 2021?”

The question is, “Do we want to race in Nashville next season or not?”

Dover International Speedway has underperformed in recent years from a revenue standpoint, selling far fewer tickets than they did even a decade ago. The reasons for that downturn are debatable, but the numbers are not. Dover Motorsports is a publicly held company, and coming back to the investors with a “business as usual” plan for 2021 would have been poorly received, to say the least.

Stockholders demanded change, and change is what they will have.

Dover Motorsports has always had the option to move races within its ownership portfolio, just as ISC/NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports, Inc. have done in the past. 

The track known as “The Monster Mile” has downsized at least four times in recent years, beginning in the late 2000s when seating capacity was reduced from 140,000 to 113,000 seats. A second reduction in 2014 saw seating cut to 95,500, then 85,000 in 2016. Last year, seating was cut once again, to the track’s current capacity of 54,000.

Nashville Superspeedway currently has 50,000 permanent seats, meaning that Dover Motorsports is effectively swapping one 50,000-seat track for another.

Based on those numbers, there has to be more to the story.

NASCAR will return in 2021.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, sources say that Dover Motorsports’ decision to roll Nashville Superspeedway out of mothballs was made at the behest of SMI, in an effort to convince mayor Cooper and the Fairgrounds Board --  once and for all -- of the value of motorsports in the Nashville market.

The hope is that when NASCAR returns, fans will support Nashville Superspeedway in large numbers, lighting a fire under the politicians to spend the money needed to bring racing back to Music City in a first-class fashion.

That plan, however, is not without its share of risk. If fans fail to respond favorably to NASCAR’s return to the Superspeedway, the message sent to local politicos will be overwhelmingly negative, potentially putting the future of the Fairgrounds oval in jeopardy.

It’s a gutsy ploy by both Dover Motorsports and SMI; one that we will be watching closely in the months to come.

COMMENTARY: In Today's NASCAR, Is 600 Miles Too Much?

Brad Keselowski won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway Sunday night, with the checkered flag falling at an hour when even the most rabid NASCAR fans struggled to maintain consciousness.

Already the longest race on NASCAR’s 2020 schedule, the 600’s traditional “daylight to darkness” format was stretched even further by an hour-long rain delay and an overtime finish. The only thing preventing it from being called a marathon was the fact that it ran longer than two marathons, with plenty of minutes still to spare.

And that, my friends, is becoming a problem.  

In 1960, when Charlotte Motor Speedway owner Bruton Smith first conjured up the idea of a 600-mile stock car race, the premise that “more is better” still applied. An unofficial graduate of the P.T, Barnum School of Promotion, Smith was always on the lookout for something new, something different, something that had never before been attempted, or even imagined. And in an era where 500-mile races were considered “outer limits,” a 600-miler was simply beyond the realm of human comprehension.

Smith’s “World 600” was designed to be the ultimate test of man and machine, and in the beginning, it was.

In its inaugural running in 1960, the event featured eight official caution flags for a total of 45 laps, with at least a dozen other incidents -- crashes and mechanical failures that failed to produce yellow flags -- included in real-time reports of the race. Cars withdrew on laps 5, 6, 27, 85, 138,176, 233, 246, 333, 341, 352 and 365 of the event, with issues ranging from “terminal crashes” to engine and transmission failures, fuel leaks and even a collapsed frame.  A total of 55 cars took the green flag that day, with only 36 of them surviving to see the checkered flag in a race that took 5:34:06 to complete on a day when the ambient temperature reached 89 degrees.

If that sounds torturous to you, consider that this year’s race – with an hourlong weather delay and an overtime finish thrown in for good measure – took almost exactly as long to compete. At a whopping 607.6 miles, Sunday’s marathon was the longest event in the 60-plus year history of NASCAR.  

Keselowski won the Coke 600

What once was designed to be the ultimate test of both man and machine has arguably become neither.

Race cars do not fail anymore. Engines no longer spew their guts on the back straightaway, erupting in billowing plumes of white smoke while chunks of piston and connecting rod cartwheel wildly in all directions. Wheels don’t collapse, tires don’t blow (at least with the regularity that they did in 1960), and it has been decades since the “Reason Out” column of the Monday morning race report contained words like “Fuel Leak” or “Frame Failure.”

In the early days of NASCAR, the question “Will my driver win” could only be answered after first determining “Will my driver finish?” Today, however, there is only one question needing to be answered. Finishing the race is virtually guaranteed, and it’s been decades since fans had reason to worry that their driver’s big lead would be erased within sight of Victory Lane by the failure of a 25-cent junkyard part.

Asked if Sunday’s race had taxed the endurance of the machines involved, defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch responded quickly in the negative.

“Is it (tough) on the cars? No,” he said. “The cars are way too sophisticated now. We could probably go 800, maybe even 1,000 miles on a race car before you’d start to see problems.”

Bruton Smith

He’s right of course, meaning that an extra-distance event like the Coke 600 is perilously close to becoming a game of “wait and see,” with a final verdict that takes far too long to determine. In today’s modern, microwave society where instant gratification is king, “wait and see” is no longer something the average Joe is willing to do.

In the 1960 World 600, second-place finisher Johnny Beauchamp rolled home four laps behind winner Joe Lee Johnson. Sunday, being four laps behind earned you 25^th and 26^th place at the drop of the checkered flag, as Ty Dillon and Matt Kenseth will unhappily attest.

In 1960, 35% of the field failed to make it to the checkered flag. Sunday, 37 of the 40 starters were still running at the finish, 19 of them on the lead lap. Only JJ Yeley, Bubba Wallace (hub) and Clint Bowyer (crash) fell out of the race before it was over.

Casual fans who sample our sport only once or twice a year – the way many of us experience the Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500 – have little interest in subjecting themselves to a 4½-hour motorsports marathon, no matter how good the racing may be. NASCAR is currently embroiled in a daily competition for the hearts, minds and attention of the North American sporting public. In recent weeks, we have recently major steps toward winning that competition, thanks to a healthy dose of “outside the box’ thinking.

Let’s not stop now.

Not long ago, the very idea of trimming the Coca-Cola 600 to a shorter, more user-friendly length amounted to nothing less than treason.

“Tradition” was reason enough to leave everything the way it was. If 600 miles was good enough for Grandpappy in 1963, it was good enough for us. Not because it was the right thing to do, necessarily, but because it had always been done that way.

Now, however, the world has changed. Three months in COVID-19 quarantine have allowed many of us to begin examining things from a whole new perspective. We no longer take things for granted, simply because they have always been there.

Wednesday night Cup racing? Why not?

Doubleheader weekends? 500 kilometers instead of 500 miles? Sure! Let’s try it! What do we have to lose?

It is time to ask ourselves whether the Coca-Cola 600 puts NASCAR’s best foot forward the way it once did. Smith’s revolutionary "more is better" concept no longer resonates with a significant percentage of the racing public. With 300 television channels, instantaneous access to the worldwide web and dozens of readily available flavors of social media on-call to entertain us on demand, “too much of a good thing” May finally have become... too much.

We have “been there” and “done that,” and with a major revamping of the 2021 schedule already promised by NASCAR, perhaps it is time to re-examine our sport’s longest race, to see if we can come up with something new, something different, something fun; in a way that will honor the legacy of Smith, the Great Innovator himself.

COMMENTARY: NASCAR Puts Necessary Teeth In Its At-Track Protocol

NASCAR issued a new technical bulletin yesterday, putting some teeth in the sanctioning body’s newly announced COVID-19 event protocol. 

Race teams were issued a lengthy list of policies and procedures late last week that will govern their May 17 return to competition at Darlington Raceway, as well as subsequent events. That protocol includes a major reduction in the number of team members allowed to attend each race event, multiple health and temperature checks before, during and after each race, controlled entry and egress from the garage area and mandatory masks and social distancing for all personnel. 

Yesterday, NASCAR made it clear that they take those guidelines seriously, warning that Cup Series personnel who fail to comply can be fined between $10,000 and $50,000. Violations in the Xfinity Series garage will result in fines of $5,000 to $25,000, with Truck Series offenders docked between $2,500 and $12,500.

There is a reason why the powers-that-be in Daytona Beach are taking their new mandates so seriously. 

The world is quite literally watching right now, and how NASCAR and its members conduct themselves in the coming weeks could play a major role in determining whether more states relax their stay at home restrictions and allow NASCAR (and other professional sports) to return to the playing field. 

North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida have led the way in that regard, becoming the first states to relax their standards and allow NASCAR racing to resume. When the cars return to the track at Darlington, they will do so as part of a single-day program that includes no practice, no qualifying and no fans in the grandstands. 

It is imperative that our sport get it right at “The Track Too Tough To Tame,” and in the days that follow at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

If people play fast-and-loose with the guidelines set forth by NASCAR to keep them healthy, they are quite literally jeopardizing the short-term future of the sport. It wasn’t easy for NASCAR to make its way back to the track, as the first professional sport to return to competition. The necessary state and federal officials have all given their thumbs-up to the plan with varying degrees of trepidation, and not everyone agrees with the decision to do so. The Governors of North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida have faced considerable criticism since NASCAR’s plan was announced, from those who consider our return to competition to be premature, ill-advised and even downright dangerous.

If our sport fails to follow the guidelines and procedures set forth – or even worse, returns home from Darlington with new cases of Coronavirus – the Governors of those states can (and will) shut things down again, as quickly as they allowed them to restart.

After Darlington and Charlotte, reliable sources say that additional races are planned for Martinsville Speedway on May 31, Bristol Motor Speedway on June 3, Atlanta Motor Speedway on June 7 and Homestead Miami Speedway on June 14. Those events have not yet been formally announced, as the sanctioning body reportedly waits for the official go-ahead from Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, whose timeline for reopening his state is a good deal more conservative than that of his counterparts in the Carolinas and Florida.

What happens in the next three weeks can play a major role in helping him make up his mind.

NASCAR has a golden opportunity to prove to prove to Gov. Northam and others that it is competent, trustworthy and capable of policing itself and keeping its people safe in the midst of a pandemic. Success on that front will almost certainly open additional doors; both for NASCAR and perhaps even society in general. 

For better or worse, our sport has taken on the role of the nation’s guinea pig, and this is a test that we cannot afford to fail.

On the off chance that there is a crew member or two who fail to take that responsibility seriously, the prospect of a $10-50,000 fine should reinforce the message quite nicely.

Virginia Moving To Relax COVID-19 Guidelines

Va. Gov. Ralph Northam

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said yesterday that he will reopen a select number of businesses and other activities next Friday, May 15, as the first stage of a three-step plan for returning the Commonwealth to a more normal mode of operation. 

COVID-19 hospitalizations are down across the state, and at a news conference in Richmond yesterday, Northam said that he will allow some businesses – including hair salons, restaurants, entertainment centers, gyms and retailers to reopen with reduced capacity and enhanced safety measures in place. 

Businesses and offices will be required to enhance physical distancing and do more cleaning and disinfecting, with employees allowed regular breaks for hand-washing. 

Northam said he expects the first phase of reopening to continue for approximately three weeks, with a subsequent further relaxation of guidelines for social gatherings to follow. Phases Two and Three also will last about three weeks, so long as infection data does not spike. 

Martinsville Speedway: Still uncertain

Northam said yesterday that his executive order closing most nonessential businesses has been extended from May 8 to May 15. He added that a separate stay-at-home order set to expire on June 10 will remain in place, for now. 

While no official announcement has yet been made, NASCAR is believed to be targeting Sunday, May 31 for a 500-lap Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway; the fifth event of its resurrected Cup Series schedule.

Northam did not mention NASCAR during yesterday’s press conference, and the sanctioning body has not commented on what impact his latest announcement might have on that event.

In a related story, a NASCAR spokesperson has confirmed to NBC Sports that voting for the 2021 class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame has been postponed. 

Originally scheduled for Wednesday, May 20, Voting Day has been pushed back to a date to be announced;  the latest postponement attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The 2021 Modern Era Ballot – for drivers whose careers began within the past 60 years – include new, first-time nominees Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Carl Edwards, along with Neil Bonnett, Harry Gant, Harry Hyde, Larry Phillips, Ricky Rudd, Kirk Shelmerdine and Mike Stefanik. 

Nominees on the 2021 Pioneer Ballot – for careers beginning more than 60 years ago – include first-time crew chief selection “Suitcase” Jake Elder and car builder/team owner Banjo Matthews, along with returning nominees Red Farmer, Hershel McGriff and Ralph Moody. 

Voters will be tasked with selecting two Modern Era nominees and one from the Pioneer Era for induction into the 2021 Hall of Fame Class.

NASCAR Announces Rules Updates

NASCAR issued an updated rules bulletin to its Cup Series teams on Friday, implementing several rule changes in the aftermath of the crash that injured Ryan Newman on the final lap of the Daytona 500. 

Many of the changes are safety related, some are not.

Most noteworthy on the list of updates is the addition of a new roll bar support, intrusion plate and upper-main roll bar support on superspeedways (Daytona and Talladega). The additions stem from the damage done to the upper driver’s-side roof area of Newman’s car in that Daytona crash, damage that played a role in him suffering a head injury that sidelined him temporarily from the sport. 

The additional bars will be optional for use on smaller tracks.

NASCAR has also eliminated the use of aero ducts at superspeedways, and reduced the size of the throttle body from 59/64” to 57/64” That change, while relatively small, is expected to decrease horsepower from 510 to around 480 or 490 at the sport’s largest and fastest ovals.

NASCAR will now mandate the addition of a check valve to oil reservoirs and overflow expansion tanks, to prevent spillage in the event that a car overturns, and there will be updated roll bar padding specifications for all tracks beginning June 1. 

They will also require that slip tape be applied to the entire lower rear bumper cover and extension at Daytona and Talladega.

The sanctioning body has lifted the temporary testing ban that was implemented at the start of the COVID-19 shutdown, though open, on-track testing is still not allowed in the Cup, Xfinity or Truck Series for the remainder of the 2020 season. Cup Series organizations are allowed a maximum of 150 hours of wind tunnel testing time through December 31 of this year.

And finally, all "new-parts submission" meetings for the remainder of 2020 have been cancelled in the interest of cost-containment, while the minimum number of short block sealed engines allowed per team has been reduced from 13 to eight.

COMMENTARY: While Imperfect, NASCAR's Return Plan Checks A Lot Of Boxes

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said yesterday that after consulting with NASCAR, track and state public health officials, he believes that  the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway can be run as scheduled on May 25, providing there are no fans in the grandstands and health conditions in the state continue to hold steady, or even improve. 

 North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore, who had urged the Governor to designate NASCAR an essential business, called the decision “an important step in bringing our economy back, bringing businesses back, and bringing exciting competitive events back to North Carolina."

As this column hits the Worldwide Web at 9 AM ET Wednesday, there has been no confirmation of NASCAR’s return to competition. But sometime today or tomorrow, NASCAR is expected to announce a schedule for returning to the track, beginning with a 400-mile event at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina on Sunday, May 17. That will be followed by an additional 310-mile race at Darlington the following Wednesday night, May 20. The next week will see back-to-back races at Charlotte Motor Speedway; the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday, May 24 and another 310-mile event on Wednesday night, May 27. Additional races are expected to be run on Sunday, May 31 at Martinsville Speedway, Wednesday night, June 3 at Bristol, Sunday, June 7 at Atlanta and Sunday, June 14 at Homestead Miami Speedway.

There is a method to NASCAR’s madness when it comes to determining what tracks reopen first, and in what order. North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida have relaxed their guidelines to allow racing to take place, a step that not all states have yet been willing to take. 

Another concern is travel. Teams are not looking to put their personnel on airplanes at present, either commercial or charter. Hotels not not an option at present, either, leaving tracks within driving distance -- Charlotte, Darlington, Martinsville, Atlanta, Bristol and Homestead – to carry the load in the short term. 

NASCAR is also restarting its resurrected 2020 season with four consecutive races using the 550-hp, high-downforce aerodynamic package, allowing teams to use cars they had previously prepared for postponed events at Atlanta, Homestead and Texas. With NASCAR teams just now reopening their shops and getting back to work, rolling out short track, superspeedway or road course cars in the next 2-3 weeks would likely be a burden too heavy to bear.

When NASCAR does return to action, what will it looks like? 

Back to business at Darlington?

Expect strict limits on the number of team members allowed at the race track, for at least the foreseeable future. Social distancing and masks will be the order of the day, with personnel checked for fever every time they enter the race track. That’s not a 100% effective means of identifying people infected with the COVID-19 virus, since it is possible to have the virus and still be asymptomatic. But with no failsafe, quick test presently available to identify those with COVID-19, temperature checks are better than nothing at all.

Many -- if not all -- of the rescheduled races are expected to be single-day events, with practice reduced dramatically and qualifying based on either practice speeds or championship points. The idea is to open the garage in the morning, roll off the event in an expedient, efficient manner and send teams home that same night. 

On multi-event weekends, the Gander Truck and Xfinity Series garages are expected to follow a similar plan, opening only on race day. That reduces the total number of people on-site on any given day, reduces the risk of transmission, expedites testing and makes social distancing easier to accomplish.

The Wednesday night races will be shorter in distance – roughly 300 miles – compacting the program, making midweek racing more palatable for the television audience and ensuring that people can get off to bed at a reasonable hour, with their NASCAR fix satisfied. 

Live pit stops are unlikely to take place, with timed cautions allowing tire changes and basic pit service to be performed at a slower pace, before drivers return to the track in the same order they left. That allows teams to reduce their payroll and transport fewer team members to the track. 

It's not a perfect scenario, by any means. 

In a perfect world, we would prefer to return to competition in a “business as usual fashion,” complete with multi-day events, live pit stops and all the competitive whistles and bells we have come to expect from NASCAR. 

Unfortunately, this is far from a perfect world right now, and very few of us are conducting "business as usual."

In the short term – at least for the next two months – NASCAR will have to ease back into action, the first sport to do so. 

It’s not perfect, but it will do as a means to get back on track, get some revenue flowing to race teams severely in need of capital, and get racing back on television for an audience that has been severely affected by simultaneous outbreaks of COVID-19 and Cabin Fever.

COMMENTARY: Kenseth Is The Right Man For The Job

We learned yesterday that Matt Kenseth will return to the NASCAR Cup Series this season, driving the No. 42 Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing.

He replaces Kyle Larson, who was released by the team after uttering a racial slur during an iRacing event two weeks ago. Yesterday’s announcement caught virtually everyone by surprise, including Kenseth himself, who admitted thinking his NASCAR career was over as little as two weeks ago. Some are questioning Ganassi’s decision to call upon Kenseth, instead of young lion Ross Chastain, to take over the reins of the No. 42 Chevy.

Why a 48-year old veteran, instead of a 27-year old, up-and-coming youngster?

In a word, stability.

Make no mistake about it, Matt Kenseth is not the long-term solution for Chip Ganassi Racing. Five years from now, we will not be talking about a 53-year old Kenseth laboring behind the wheel of any NASCAR Cup Series race car, much less the No. 42 machine.

Despite yesterday’s announcement, Chastain remains the heir-apparent for that ride; or the No.1 Chevy currently manned by Ganassi’s other veteran wheelman, Kurt Busch. But the timing for Chastain is not quite right, and here’s why.

In the aftermath of Larson’s controversial dismissal, Chip Ganassi has spent the last two weeks in damage-control mode. A significant portion of the last 14 days has been spent patching the hole Larson unwittingly punched in the hull of CGR’s corporate battleship, making amends with understandably jittery sponsors – McDonald’s, Credit One Bank, Advent Health -- and assembling an unassailable list of reasons why they should stay on board, rather than look elsewhere in the sport.

Kenseth fills the bill in virtually every way.

Kenseth fills the bill.

He is a steady, veteran presence who will calm the waters at CGR almost immediately. He is a former NASCAR Cup Series champion who finished Top-10 in the championship standings in seven of his last eight full-time seasons. Other than a somewhat fiery on-track spat with Joey Logano a few years ago – a dispute that lasted exactly two races – he has been essentially controversy-free through more than two decades under the white-hot spotlight of the NASCAR Cup Series.

Ganassi said it perfectly yesterday when he said Kenseth brings “no baggage” to the dance.

Ganassi knows what he is getting with Kenseth. He’s getting a driver who has unfailingly upgraded the performance of every single team he has driven for, from Robbie Reiser to Jack Roush (twice) to Joe Gibbs. He will do the same for Chip Ganassi.

Kenseth arrives at CGR boasting a ready-made relationship with his teammate, having worked alongside Kurt Busch for a number of years at Roush Fenway Racing. Both drivers refer to each other as the best teammate they’ve ever had, and putting that particular band back together makes absolute sense for Ganassi.

The team has petitioned NASCAR for a waiver that would make Kenseth eligible for the 2020 playoffs, and despite having to dig out of a four-race hole, it’s not hard to imagine him satisfying all the requirements necessary for playoff qualification and perhaps even winning a race or two along the way.

Don’t worry about Ross Chastain. He will contest strongly for the 2020 Xfinity Series title with Kaulig Racing, continuing to pad a resume that already ranks him as a can’t-miss star of the future. He remains under contract with Ganassi Racing, and he remains a big part of that organization’s future plans.

But the future is not now.

At this precise moment in time, Chip Ganassi does not have the luxury of thinking half a decade down the road. Right now, he needs to focus on stopping the organizational bleeding, pacifying his sponsors and charting a calm, steady, even-handed course through the remainder of a 2020 campaign that has already seen far too much upheaval and uncertainty.

Matt Kenseth is the right man for that job. That’s my view, for what it’s worth. When we come back, Tyler Reddick.