NASCAR Returns this Weekend: Things You Need to Know

by Julian Spivey

Photo: Parker Anderson Photography

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NASCAR is making its return to the track on Sunday at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C. after two months off due to the Covid-19 pandemic and will become the second major sport to return to the U.S. after the UFC (and the first in which it’s main events aren’t pay-per-view).
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Though the sport is returning there are aspects of it that won’t look exactly like you remember, so we’re going to layout what you should expect with the sports return.

Schedule:
To make up for some of the races missed NASCAR is trying to pack as many races into a short amount of time as it can and as a result Darlington Raceway has been given an additional two races (the two the sport is resuming the season with) and Charlotte Motor Speedway has been given an additional race (the one being run on Wednesday, May 27). These three races are replacing those on the schedule that were supposed to go to Richmond Raceway (will still have its fall date), Chicagoland Speedway and Sonoma Raceway. The sport will see seven races amongst its three series in a span of 11 days once the season resumes this Sunday, which should make for a fun week and a half for auto racing fans.

Just today NASCAR released what the schedule will look like after Charlotte. The series will head to Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn., Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga., Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Va. (to be held on a Wednesday night and mark the first ever Cup race under the track’s recently added lights), Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla. and Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala., which gets the sports into late June.   

Below is the Cup, Xfinity and Gander Truck Series Schedules for the next two weeks:

Cup:
Darlington 1 – Sunday, May 17 (Fox, 2:30 p.m. CT)
Darlington 2 – Wednesday, May 20 (FS1, 6:30 p.m. CT)
Charlotte 1 – Coco-Cola 600 – Sunday, May 24 (Fox, 5 p.m. CT)
Charlotte 2 – Wednesday, May 27 (FS1, 7 p.m.)
 
Xfinity:
Darlington – Tuesday, May 19 (FS1, 7 p.m. CT)
Charlotte – Monday, May 25 (FS1, 6:30 p.m. CT)

Gander Truck Series:
Charlotte – Tuesday, May 26 (FS1, 7 p.m. CT)

Race Format:
Once the green flag is dropped to resume the NASCAR season the actual races are going to seem mostly normal. The races are going to continue with the regular stages and points handed out at the end of each stage. The Darlington races and the second Charlotte race will have three stages and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte on Sunday, May 20 will have its usual four stages due to its extended length as the longest race in NASCAR.  

Covid-19 Testing:
NASCAR has opted to check the temperatures of any personnel, including drivers, entering the track.

Fans:
There obviously won’t be any fans in the grandstands for the foreseeable future. This is for the safety of everybody within the sport from the drivers, crews, officials, media and most importantly the fans.

Setting the Field:
The biggest change to these races is going to come before the green flag is dropped. NASCAR is not holding qualifying or practices for these events, so when the green flag drops in the first Darlington race on Sunday the drivers will be making their first laps period in their cars. The first Darlington Cup Series race is going to be set via a random draw. The first 12 positions on the grid will be determined by a random draw from charter teams in the top 12 positions in owner points. Positions 13-24 will also be a random draw from charter teams in positions 13-24 in owner points. The same will be done for positions 25-36. The final four positions in the 40-car field will be set by non-chartered teams in the order of their owner points. The lineup for the first race will be selected on Thursday, May 14.

The second Darlington Cup Series race held Wednesday, May 20 will use an inversion of the first Darlington race finishing order. This inversion will be done for the top 20 finishers in the race. So, whichever driver wins the first Darlington race will begin the second one in the 20th starting position and so on. The 20th place finisher in the first race will start on pole for the second. The drivers who finish in positions 21-40 will start the second Darlington race in the position they finished the first one. If there are any new entrants for the second race those cars would start at the tail of the field.

Because the Coca-Cola 600 is one of the most prestigious races on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule the series will do time trial qualifying for that race and the field will be set by the fastest qualifiers. The second Charlotte race on Wednesday, May 27 will be the same way that the second Darlington race will be set with the one inversion for the top 20 finishers of the Coca-Cola 600.

The starting lineups for the Xfinity Series races at Darlington and Charlotte and the Gander Truck Series race at Charlotte will be set with the random draw based on owner points that the Cup Series is using for the first Darlington race.

Old Faces Returning:
Ryan Newman, who received head injuries in a terrible crash at the season-opening Daytona 500 in February, has been cleared to return to racing after the two month layoff due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result of the sport being dormant for two months Newman will only have missed three races.

Matt Kenseth has come out of retirement, though he told Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his Dale Jr. Download podcast this week that he doesn’t like the “r-word” because he ever officially retired, to take over the no. 42 seat for Chip Ganassi Racing when the team fired driver Kyle Larson over the layoff due to usage of a racist slur caught on a hot mic during a virtual iRacing event. Kenseth last raced for Jack Roush Racing in a part-time capacity in the 2018 season.

Media/Broadcast:
The broadcast of the race might seem a bit different than what you’re accustomed to seeing. The biggest change is that Fox NASCAR commentators Mike Joy and Jeff Gordon will not be calling the Darlington race in-person from the track, but rather from the Fox Sports NASCAR studio in Charlotte. Some fans on social media are concerned this will lead to the announcers missing some of the action or at least being late to it, but many announcers likely rely on their monitors even when covering a race in-person, so this might not be a huge issue. Some broadcasts of races, especially in other series, have been done remotely from studios away from the track before as cost-saving measures and this could potentially be something fans of the sport might need to get used to if networks ever decide to go that route. One thing that might affect the broadcast is it doesn’t seem Fox Sports will have the same number of pit reporters at the track with NASCAR cutting down on non-essential personnel for these events. Regan Smith will broadcast from the track for Sunday’s Darlington race and Matt Yocum will be live from the track for the Wednesday, May 20 race.

Winner interviews will be conducted via Zoom following the race.

If you like to follow print media for NASCAR coverage many of your favorite NASCAR journalists will likely be covering races from their homes. NASCAR is limiting traditional media to only four journalists, one from the Associated Press, one from a local publication if the publication so chooses and two randomly selected from other national publications. These reporters will be restricted to the track’s press box.