NASCAR announced Friday what it described as a “realignment” for its already revised Cup Series schedule as the result of the global COVID-19 outbreak, which initially led to the postponement of eight races this spring.
Simply put, NASCAR’s return to racing later this month features three new races added to the schedule. So in turn, three races in the future needed to be eliminated to equal the total 36 it usually runs.
Because of that, Chicagoland Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and Richmond Raceway each lost one race this season. Richmond typically hosts two Cup Series races per year, so while the spring race originally scheduled for April will not be made up, NASCAR’s visit to the short track in September is still on. However, Chicagoland and Sonoma lost their lone races of the season.
In a statement Friday, the governing body said:
“Due to the current pandemic, NASCAR has faced several difficult decisions, including realigning race dates from several race tracks. These decisions were made following thorough collaboration with local and state government officials from across the country, including the areas of the affected race tracks. We thank all our fans for their support, and we look forward to our return to racing.”
NASCAR’s last race in 2020 was in early March at Phoenix Raceway right before the sports world shut down because of the coronavirus outbreak.
But it’s returning to the real-life race track — as opposed to the virtual track drivers have been competing on while the COVID-19 crisis put the season on hold — later this month, starting with four planned races, three of which were added to the schedule.
After an eight-race hiatus, the Cup Series’ first race back is Sunday, May 17 at Darlington Raceway. The second event will be Wednesday the 20th also at the 1.366-mile South Carolina track, which normally only has one race a season, the Southern 500 at the end of the summer (and still on NASCAR’s schedule).
Following Darlington, the next two races will be at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The first one will be the iconic Coca-Cola 600 — it will be on Memorial Day Weekend for the 60th straight season – while the second was added to the schedule and will be on the following Wednesday.
Because Darlington received two extra races and Charlotte got one, NASCAR needed to eliminate three races somewhere else.
As NASCAR explained, the Chicagoland race was “realigned” to Darlington on May 17, Richmond’s spring race was “realigned” to Darlington on May 20, and Sonoma’s race was “realigned” to Charlotte on May 27.
Several factors were considered for NASCAR to come back, such as being able to drive to tracks for one-day trips and which states are willing to allow racing to actually take place, like North Carolina and South Carolina. Those components will likely also impact the governing body’s moves beyond the four initial races announced as part of its return.
Although no additional race dates beyond May 27 have been confirmed, NASCAR has been adamant about doing everything in its power to race a full 36-race season. The next race currently on the regular schedule is at Kansas Speedway on May 31.
[jwplayer ZAuoCP2S-q2aasYxh]
[vertical-gallery id=900842]
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 tag=421393221]