North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said that he expects one of NASCAR’s crown jewel events, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, to take place during its traditional Memorial Day weekend date of Sunday, May 24, “unless health conditions go down.” Cooper made the comments on Tuesday afternoon during his daily press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic.
Cooper said that NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway officials had submitted a plan to North Carolina’s health and government officials that would implement social distancing among participants and no fans in the speedway grandstands. The governor said that the plan had been reviewed by Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of NC Department of Health and Human Services and State Health Director Dr. Elizabeth Tilson, who “looked at them, made some suggestions, but will approve those.”
Cooper added “I think NASCAR will be making that announcement, but I believe that is what will happen.”
This momentum of returning to the racetrack began last Thursday. That’s when Cooper, while announcing an extension to North Carolina’s stay at home order until May 8, also confirmed that he had designated NASCAR race shops as an essential business and that team members could return to work if they maintained social distancing guidelines and also adhered to local government stay at home policies. The vast majority of NASCAR organizations are located in the Charlotte area, as well as a handful of IndyCar, NHRA and Sports Car teams.
ESPN has confirmed that NASCAR is working toward announcing a revised 2020 schedule that could start early as mid-May. A potential new schedule was sent to NASCAR teams by the sanctioning body that includes six races, beginning with a 400-mile event at Darlington Raceway on May 17 and visiting racetracks throughout the southeast into mid-June.
Locations such as Darlington, South Carolina, Charlotte, Bristol, Tennessee, Martinsville, Virginia, and Atlanta are attractive because of their close proximity to the race shops, but also because COVID-19 restrictions have been loosened more quickly in those states. Homestead-Miami Speedway is also on the initial list of potential first racetracks back.
NASCAR was last at the track on Friday, March 13. Teams were preparing for practice at Atlanta Motor Speedway when the sanctioning body announced the postponement of the race due to the pandemic.