Venues that look like ghost towns are a given around the sports world, but NASCAR has bucked that trend by allowing thousands of spectators into most of its events. Despite softer protocols compared to other sports -- there is no testing requirement in NASCAR -- the sport has avoided major incident so far. On the most recent episode of “SBJ Unpacks: The Road Ahead,” our Bill King and Adam Stern talk about NASCAR’s discussions around allowing fans to attend their races and how motorsports are setting the pace for the rest of the sports industry.
On why NASCAR has been able to start bringing fans back to venues:
Stern: Motorsports is adjacent to the stick and ball world, but it’s not in the middle of it. You’ve got a little bit of a different fan base. You’ve got a little bit of a different amount of limelight on the sport. NASCAR’s obviously a major sport, but it’s always been able to operate a little bit outside of what’s always expected of the stick and ball guys, who to a certain extent fall in line with the same protocols. … Also, these are gigantic facilities, so this is a situation where motorsports have gotten lucky to an extent with how large they’ve built their facilities. It’s now something that’s turned into a bit of a positive advantage during this time.
On how the racing community feels about NASCAR’s protocols:
Stern: There might be some people who would like to see more coronavirus testing, but at the same time people understand why there isn’t. We spoke to NASCAR President Steve Phelps, and he had an interesting perspective on it. He’s not sure that doing more testing would even necessarily help them. He’s worried about the potential of false positives confusing things, and he also strongly feels that they have these built in advantages that really help NASCAR out relative to other sports. He made clear that he respects what other sports have been doing, but NASCAR has been back for 11-12 weeks. It is remarkable they’re coming up on three months back and there hasn’t really been … any mass outbreak that’s been clearly apparent in the garage.
On NASCAR locking down an authorized betting provider with BetMGM:
Stern: NASCAR continues to do a good job, but also continues to recognize that this is a long-term build. That’s why adding partners like this is big. They do have to build this. They don’t have that huge share of the handle yet, and so getting partners like MGM on board, that’s big. That’s how they’re going to grow. They need partners like that to put that in front of bettors and say, ‘Remember, there’s a NASCAR race today, and do you want to look at the odds?’ NASCAR still has a long way to go to get a legitimate, big share of American sports betting. It’s just not there yet. We know that. We’ve seen the numbers, but they continue to put these deals in place.
