NASCAR wants to cram 33 Cup races in 26 weeks while avoiding playoff doubleheaders
NASCAR plans to run all of its Cup Series points races and the non-points All-Star race this season despite a seven-race postponement due to coronavirus, according to NASCAR president Steve Phelps in a conference call with media members Tuesday.
The scheduling and format for those make-up races has not been determined.
“At this particular point, we would like to finish the season at Phoenix and keep the Playoff portion intact,” Phelps said. “With that said, it will require a lot of different opportunities for us to look at. We’re in the process of doing that.”
Phelps did not confirm whether NASCAR is considering doubleheaders or mid-week races, but he said NASCAR wants to schedule all postponed races before the Cup playoffs to avoid running doubleheaders during that time. He said NASCAR is working with the teams, tracks and broadcast partners to determine the format for the remainder of the season.
“For us, we have a commitment to our fans that we’re going to run all the races,” Phelps said. “We have a commitment to all our competitors that we run all the races. We have a commitment to the stakeholders broadly that we’re going to run all the races.”
“We are going to do everything in our power to get these races in,” he continued. “If there are other variables that happen that would suggest we can’t do that, we’ll look at those at that time.”
NASCAR typically runs 37 Cup Series races during its regular season, including the All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which does not count for points. Last year’s racing season took place over 39 weeks, beginning with the Daytona 500.
This year, the season is scheduled to take place in 38 weeks, with the final 10 playoff races scheduled to begin Sept. 6 at Darlington Raceway and end Nov. 8 at Phoenix Raceway. In order to make up the seven points races that are currently postponed, NASCAR would need to begin running two races a week by July if it also wants to avoid hosting doubleheaders during playoffs.
Monday, NASCAR postponed five upcoming races through May 3, in addition to the two races it had already postponed — at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend and Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend. The earliest scheduled NASCAR race that could take place is May 9 at Martinsville, which would mean 33 races in 26 weeks if the entire slate of Cup Series events are still held.
NASCAR originally said last week that those races would run without spectators but by Friday morning, both events were postponed completely. Phelps called the situation “fluid” and said that it was ultimately not in the best interest to run either event without fans.
“It did change,” Phelps said. “We were prepared to first run (the Atlanta race) on Sunday, then we were going to pull it to Saturday. It was decided quickly that we would make a change and postpone both the Atlanta race as well as the Homestead‑Miami race.”
Phelps indicated, however, that NASCAR would consider running its next scheduled races without fans. He said that NASCAR is continuing to work with health officials to make the call.
“We’re working with a number of infectious disease professionals that are going to help us through what that looks like and whether it makes sense for us to race without fans or have our first race be back with fans,” Phelps said.
While he did not provided specifics in terms of subsidies or other funding plans, Phelps also said NASCAR is working closely with teams to keep them financially viable during the postponements.
“Are we concerned about teams broadly and their financial health? Of course we are,” Phelps said. “We want to make sure that each of our teams gets through this, each of our stakeholders in the industry gets through this crisis as well as we all can.
“It’s not an easy situation for sure, but it’s one that this industry is managing together,” Phelps continued. “Really proud of how this industry has come together to try to support each other and to try to get through this as best we can. Again, it’s a difficult situation.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 4:48 PM.
