This month’s race at New Hampshire included about 12,000 fans in the stands.getty images
Since returning to action in mid-May, NASCAR has held races in front of fans at five tracks and isn’t ready to tap the brakes on that effort. Instead, as it rolls toward the playoffs, the sanctioning body is hoping to add to that total.
“We’re very interested in having race fans at tracks, and having been to all of our races but two and being at tracks with no fans — the eerie quiet before drivers start their engines and then after they shut them off [is not ideal],” said NASCAR President Steve Phelps. “During the race when engines are going, it’s like a regular race, but those other times it’s just not, and it’s such a pleasure to start to see fans at some of our tracks.”
In the meantime, the sport is continuing its approach to mitigating the potential spread of COVID-19 among drivers, crewmen and others at the track. NASCAR is one of the few sports back that is not doing uniform coronavirus testing of all participants. However, there has not yet been any apparent outbreak to suggest the measures in place aren’t working.
NASCAR is now more than halfway through its 36-race season. It has been one of the first sports to allow fans to come back where local governments allow for it: The series allowed up to 1,000 military members at Homestead-Miami (June 14); up to 5,000 regular fans at Talladega (June 22); around 20,000 fans for the All-Star Race at Bristol (July 15); several thousand at Texas (July 19); and, most recently, 12,000 fans at New Hampshire (Aug. 2).
Mike Burch, Speedway Motorsports’ chief strategy officer, said that for events at its tracks including New Hampshire, the company now requires digital tickets and face coverings. It has also gone to socially distanced seating, contactless concession stands and banned coolers. At New Hampshire, Speedway Motorsports experimented with technology that allowed fans to scan a QR code to select items on the menu.
So far, no outbreaks have been publicly linked to any of the races that have had fans.
Phelps said it was still to be determined which races will be able to have fans when the playoffs start on Sept. 6 at Darlington, but a priority would be the championship race on Nov. 8 at Phoenix Raceway. Other likely candidates would be the three tracks that have already hosted fans and have a second race during the playoffs — Talladega, Texas and Bristol.
Just making sure NASCAR gets to the point of holding a championship remains a work in progress. While NASCAR has had only a handful of industry members test positive for the virus, and only one Cup Series driver (Jimmie Johnson), only those who show symptoms are getting tested — a stark contrast to other leagues.
Phelps pushed back on the notion that NASCAR has limited testing to save money. The Associated Press has reported that it would cost around $2 million for NASCAR to test the roughly 900 people within its footprint on a given weekend.
“For us it’s working,” Phelps said. “We’ve had something like six out of 1,000 [people test positive]; the numbers are so incredibly low. If we thought that testing would lower that further — I don’t think it would because of false positives,” Phelps said. “I understand the NBA needs to do things one way and the PGA needs to do it their way; everyone is different. I can assure you this isn’t a cost thing — it has nothing to do with costs. If we had to spend whatever to significantly create greater safety, we’d do that.”
