NASCAR playoffs are here, COVID cases are rising and drivers will hardly talk about vaccine
.JPG "NASCAR is yet to follow the lead of American sports leagues and announce the vaccination rates of its teams.")
Richard Petty was featured in March in a public service announcement in which the 84-year-old NASCAR Hall of Famer was shown receiving his COVID-19 vaccine and encouraging others to do the same.
“I might’ve been a little bit hesitant to begin with,” Petty said in the video released by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. “But after looking at all the statistics, I don’t see anything after you take the shot. Everybody seems to get along with it pretty good.”
The video was intended to prompt the vaccine-hesitant to “find their spot and take their shot,” according to the NCDHHS. Public health officials have urged Americans to get vaccinated, and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have endorsed the vaccine in order to help move the country through the pandemic. The FDA last week approved the Pfizer vaccine.
Within NASCAR, only a handful of the sport’s most high-profile figures, including Petty, four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon and five current full-time Cup drivers have shared that they’re vaccinated, and not all are throwing their full support behind it.
“It’s hard for me to know how to feel,” Joey Logano said this week when asked whether he felt more comfortable knowing he was vaccinated given NASCAR’s protocols.
Logano previously told reporters that he got vaccinated after driver Corey LaJoie was sidelined for a race at Michigan. LaJoie did not test positive for the virus, but NASCAR mandates a more restrictive set of rules for drivers and team members who are not vaccinated and exposed to a positive case compared to individuals who are vaccinated.
NASCAR and its largest, four-car teams (Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing) are not requiring the vaccine, although tracks and team shops have hosted clinics and provided resources to encourage industry members to get the shot.
“You watch the news and it depends on what channel you want to watch is what you’re gonna get,” Logano said. “ … All I can do is control what I can control, which is being as safe as I possibly can for multiple reasons.”
Logano, who drives for Team Penske, cited his wife’s pregnancy and the playoff run he’ll embark on starting this weekend at Darlington, in which 16 drivers will be cut down to a single champion over the next 10 races. The teams fielding those drivers — Penske, Hendrick, SHR, JGR and Richard Childress Racing — stand to lose more if drivers or team members miss upcoming races, and Logano said that was part of his consideration to get the vaccine.
“I cannot afford to not be in the racecar, either, so I have those risks that I need to keep in mind, along with my own health,” Logano said.
Other full-time Cup drivers Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick and William Byron also previously shared that they’ve been vaccinated. No additional Cup drivers in the 16-driver playoff field shared their vaccination status when presented an opportunity to do so this week during NASCAR’s virtual playoff media availability, with some drivers citing their privacy.
“I don’t really think any of that stuff is meant to be talked about in these types of situations,” Kevin Harvick said. “But I think as we’ve gone through the world over the last couple of years, I think we’ve changed with the world.”
While NASCAR, teams and drivers have adopted policies and practices to account for rising cases with the spread of the Delta variant, the sanctioning body has also declined to announce its industry vaccination rates — without identifying individuals — a contrast to what sports leagues and motorsports series have done.
“NASCAR requires its drivers to communicate any medical updates, including vaccination status, to our medical liaison group,” NASCAR said in a statement to The Observer. “As a matter of internal policy, we do not disseminate that information publicly.”
The NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLS and IndyCar have all announced vaccination rates around or above 90%. In early June, NASCAR said that getting the fully vaccinated rate within the industry above the 70% threshold was critical to reducing the potential impact of the virus on NASCAR events, but the sanctioning body has yet to provide its vaccination rate.
Before the Cup race at Talladega in April, NASCAR president Steve Phelps told reporters that the number of vaccinated individuals in the garage was steadily rising. He also said that NASCAR would ask the drivers to promote that vaccination process.
“To the degree that we can help with folks who are uncertain about whether they want to get the vaccine, I think it would be critical to have those with the loudest voice within the sport talking about their vaccinations,” Phelps said at the time.
But those voices have remained relatively quiet as certain restrictions have been reinstated at the track due to rising cases nationwide. In June, NASCAR expanded guest access in the competition footprint and discontinued certain pandemic-related practices, such as mandatory health screening questionnaires for those in the garage footprint, starting with the Texas All-Star Race weekend.
More recently, NASCAR re-implemented an indoor mask mandate in the bubble (outdoor mask mandates for media members interacting with drivers) and reduced guest and fan interactions with teams and drivers as positive cases increased over the last three months. Health screening questionnaires have not been reinstated, and NASCAR has not regularly tested drivers or team members since the start of the pandemic.
With cases rising and playoffs looming, policies at team shops have tightened as well. For example, teams are again requiring masks indoors regardless of vaccination status in line with state and local guidance. JGR also started a weekly testing program for traveling crew members that have not shown proof of vaccination.
Almost all playoff drivers indicated that contracting the virus is a concern and that each is being conscientious of health and safety, but few commented on the vaccine.
“None of us 16 drivers that are competing for the playoffs can afford to miss a race,” Christopher Bell said. “It’s a very, very high concern for sure, and that’ll probably be the extent of my answer.”
Kyle Busch also provided a short response when asked about personal precautions in response to the Delta variant: “I haven’t changed anything,” he said. “I’m going about life as normal.”
Individual NASCAR teams have not released vaccination rates in comparison to other leagues either. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers this past week became the second NFL team to announce it had reached a 100% vaccination rate, following the Atlanta Falcons. The NFL is getting ready to start its 2021 season. NASCAR’s season is winding down. But athletes in both will be competing during a pandemic with the public eye heightened this fall.
NASCAR and its top drivers might not want to say much when it comes to the vaccine, but with local hospitals again inundated with COVID-19 cases, health leaders urging the shot and wary of a post-Labor Day surge and a not-quite-back-to-normal championship battle playing out over the next two months, now especially, is the time for the sport and its biggest players to at least say more.
