NASCAR's latest round of cuts, which saw an estimated 100 people laid off, was "accelerated by the coronavirus outbreak," according to Godwin Kelly of the Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL. When NASCAR bought ISC in December, most "figured that staff across the board would be downsized and systems would be streamlined under one umbrella." There was an earlier workforce cut of "about 70 employees in April." NASCAR Exec VP & Chief Marketing and Content Officer Jill Gregory said, "None of those decisions get made lightly. We had an intersection of business concerns and challenges. The NASCAR-ISC integration was well underway and then this crisis hit, which even further complicates matters." Gregory said that the merger, along with the business effects of the coronavirus pandemic, "made the reduction a necessity for survival." Gregory: "We had pre-existing business challenges that were layered on to the COVID-19 crisis. That made it a time to act very thoughtfully, but decisively, to set the sport up for success in a much different environment that we could have ever imagined." Meanwhile, Kelly notes those who will remain with NASCAR are "working from home as the inside of the International Motorsports Center goes through a social-distancing redesign" (Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL, 5/20).
