NASCAR president Steve Phelps says revised racing schedule is ’99 percent’ done

NASCAR’s return now means some tracks will have to lose a race later on.

NASCAR is on its way back, despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, with cars scheduled to hit the track at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, May 17 for the first time since early March when the season was postponed. And fans (of NASCAR and sports in general) are pumped for the return of some type of athletic competition.

But there are a number of complex issues related to the coronavirus’ impact on racing and NASCAR’s nine-month schedule, ranging from the strict health and safety measures that will be in place for the few people actually allowed at the track to the logistics of trying to fit a full slate of 36 races in after eight have been postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak.

However, NASCAR president Steve Phelps said this week on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast that the reworked schedule is “99 percent of the way done.” And that means the governing body has already tentatively figured out which tracks will lose or gain races this season.

For right now, the NASCAR Cup Series’ revised schedule opens with four races: Two at Darlington followed by two at Charlotte Motor Speedway, including the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend.

On this week’s episode of the Dale Jr. Download, Phelps explained:

“We would like to announce a full schedule. The reasons why we can’t do that — part of that has to do with we don’t know if we can get into that particular state or not. So we know we’re good in the state of South Carolina. We know we’re good in the state of North Carolina. So that’s kind of where we stopped just to put a flag in the ground and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to move forward with these first four races.'”

North Carolina and South Carolina are permitting NASCAR to race and re-open their shops, and with the sport based in Charlotte, both tracks are within driving distance to make each trip as short as possible. Additionally, there won’t be practice for these races, nor will there be qualifying outside of the Coca-Cola 600.

But these two tracks also complicate things.

Normally, the Cup Series would have one race, the Southern 500, per season at Darlington, and it’s one of NASCAR’s “crown jewel” events. There also traditionally would be two races at the Charlotte track: The Coke 600 (also a “crown jewel”) and a playoff race on the half-road course, half-oval known as the roval.

Both the Southern 500 in September and the roval race in October remain on the schedule as planned currently. So by handing Darlington two additional races and giving Charlotte a third, NASCAR will have to drop three other race dates from the schedule — and that number could increase, depending on the direction the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. takes.

Phelps continued on the Dale Jr. Download:

“What we’re determining right now is, obviously, the number of events in Darlington for this year, when the season started, we had one. Now, we have three, so we had to figure out where those races are coming from.

“So we have some idea. But we’re trying to figure out what that looks like because if you have two additional Darlingtons and one additional Charlotte Motor Speedway [race], they have to come from some race track. So is that coming from a race track with two events that will now have one? Those are the things we’re trying to work through right now.”

NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, Steve O’Donnell, was a little firmer. In a conference call with reporters Thursday, he said: “Those decisions have been made,” but NASCAR isn’t prepared to make anything public.

There are several contributing factors for figuring out which races could be eliminated, including sponsorship obligations and whether the tracks are owned by either NASCAR or Speedway Motorsports.

But the point is that some tracks are going to lose a race, and although the situation is fluid, it sounds like NASCAR has determined which ones.

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