Post by sagebrush on May 17, 2020 18:05:24 GMT -8
No fans at Darlington. Winner does the traditional cutting a cookie without fans. Kind of wonder when they are trading paint if that is social distancing😁. There was also a 4-man skins game today.
With hands over their hearts and protective masks covering their faces, NASCAR drivers stood on pit road, generous spacing between them, as Darius Rucker sang the national anthem from a remote location.
Once inside their racecars, the 40 drivers swapped their masks for helmets and fired up their engines for the first time in 10 weeks.
Before empty grandstands Sunday at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, NASCAR took the country’s first step toward demonstrating that big-time sports can resume amid the novel coronavirus pandemic — sports in which athletes don’t come near one another, at least.
Kevin Harvick won the Cup Series race, dubbed The Real Heroes 400 to honor front-line health-care workers, after leading 159 of 293 laps on the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval.
Harvick celebrated by pulling his No. 4 Ford to a stop on the track’s front stretch and spinning the Thunderbird’s rear end in smoke-spewing doughnuts to an audience of absolutely no one.
Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Ford, takes the green flag to start The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C.
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Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Ford, takes the green flag to start The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C.
There were no handshakes, high-fives or group hugs afterward. All of that was prohibited by NASCAR’s many precautions to guard against transmission of the virus among the 640 drivers and crew members taking part.
The upshot was an eerie tableau of emptiness and restraint in a sport that for decades built its following on excess — larger-than-life personalities, high-speed crashes and passionate, fist-pumping fans.
NASCAR fires up its engines Sunday, hoping to lead sports’ return from quarantine
After climbing out of his car and removing his protective fire sock and helmet, Harvick acknowledged both the joy and eeriness of the day to Fox’s lone pit reporter, former NASCAR driver Regan Smith, who held an extended microphone to reach Harvick without violating the event’s spacing requirements.
“I just want to thank everyone from NASCAR and all the teams for letting us do what we do,” Harvick said, scanning the empty stands that otherwise would have held up to 47,000. “I didn’t think it was going to be that much different, and then we won the race and it’s dead silent out here. We miss the fans. . . . It’s weird just because nobody is up there.”
Alex Bowman finished second in a Hendrick Motorsports Camaro, providing Stewart-Haas Racing’s Harvick with his biggest challenge of the afternoon. But Harvick seized the lead on a late restart and pulled away over the final 30 laps.
But the 44-year-old Harvick had the best car and boatloads more experience, fending off all comers to claim his 50th career victory.
It’s NASCAR’s hope that in leading sports’ return to the airwaves as the country slowly emerges from isolation, it can recharge its core fan base and convert a new generation of followers.
But it remains to be seen whether broadcasts of cars driven by largely faceless drivers going around in circles in empty speedways will captivate TV audiences in the coming weeks.
Sunday’s race was the first of four NASCAR Cup events that will be crammed in an 11-day window in an effort to deliver the full 36-race season promised to Fox and NBC: Another race at Darlington is scheduled for Wednesday night, followed by two at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Coca-Cola 600 on May 24 and a considerably shorter event May 27.
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Sunday’s race was staged under unprecedented conditions.
To further safeguard the safety of participants, the race teams were limited to crews of 16, including the driver.
The customary practice and qualifying sessions the day before were canceled so the entire “race weekend” could be staged in a single day. That way, no hotel stays were necessary.
Before entering the track, which is roughly a two-hour drive from most NASCAR teams’ headquarters in the Charlotte area, all participants were required to submit to temperature checks by masked health-care workers while sitting in their cars.
Ryan Newman, a ‘walking miracle,’ is in field for NASCAR’s return at Darlington
And drivers had to remain isolated in their motor homes until summoned to their cars for the prerace festivities, which included an invocation delivered by a pastor from a remote location and a command to start engines delivered via split-screen video from a medley of health-care workers.
AD
Darlington Raceway is considered the most difficult track on the NASCAR circuit because of its imperfect layout and irregular surface. To run the fastest lap, drivers must come within inches of the concrete wall, over and over, without losing focus for more than three hours.
None had been in a racecar since March 8. And none had even tested his Darlington car before the green flag flew.
Not surprisingly, the field couldn’t even complete the first lap before a driver spun on the backstretch and hit the wall, bringing out the first caution of the day.
The rest of the event was largely a one- and two-car parade, halted by occasional single-car spins and skirmishes with the concrete wall.
It won’t be clear for weeks, of course, whether NASCAR’s many safety measures, developed in conjunction with public-health officials and an infectious disease specialist, truly guarded against transmission of the virus.
AD
But the immediate returns of NASCAR’s first race back were positive. Ideally, NASCAR’s protocol, which includes staging all races within driving distances from Charlotte through June 10 and barring fans for the foreseeable future, will offer a template for other sports to study and adapt as they plan their own resumption.
With hands over their hearts and protective masks covering their faces, NASCAR drivers stood on pit road, generous spacing between them, as Darius Rucker sang the national anthem from a remote location.
Once inside their racecars, the 40 drivers swapped their masks for helmets and fired up their engines for the first time in 10 weeks.
Before empty grandstands Sunday at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, NASCAR took the country’s first step toward demonstrating that big-time sports can resume amid the novel coronavirus pandemic — sports in which athletes don’t come near one another, at least.
Kevin Harvick won the Cup Series race, dubbed The Real Heroes 400 to honor front-line health-care workers, after leading 159 of 293 laps on the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval.
Harvick celebrated by pulling his No. 4 Ford to a stop on the track’s front stretch and spinning the Thunderbird’s rear end in smoke-spewing doughnuts to an audience of absolutely no one.
Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Ford, takes the green flag to start The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C.
View Photos
Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Ford, takes the green flag to start The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C.
There were no handshakes, high-fives or group hugs afterward. All of that was prohibited by NASCAR’s many precautions to guard against transmission of the virus among the 640 drivers and crew members taking part.
The upshot was an eerie tableau of emptiness and restraint in a sport that for decades built its following on excess — larger-than-life personalities, high-speed crashes and passionate, fist-pumping fans.
NASCAR fires up its engines Sunday, hoping to lead sports’ return from quarantine
After climbing out of his car and removing his protective fire sock and helmet, Harvick acknowledged both the joy and eeriness of the day to Fox’s lone pit reporter, former NASCAR driver Regan Smith, who held an extended microphone to reach Harvick without violating the event’s spacing requirements.
“I just want to thank everyone from NASCAR and all the teams for letting us do what we do,” Harvick said, scanning the empty stands that otherwise would have held up to 47,000. “I didn’t think it was going to be that much different, and then we won the race and it’s dead silent out here. We miss the fans. . . . It’s weird just because nobody is up there.”
Alex Bowman finished second in a Hendrick Motorsports Camaro, providing Stewart-Haas Racing’s Harvick with his biggest challenge of the afternoon. But Harvick seized the lead on a late restart and pulled away over the final 30 laps.
But the 44-year-old Harvick had the best car and boatloads more experience, fending off all comers to claim his 50th career victory.
It’s NASCAR’s hope that in leading sports’ return to the airwaves as the country slowly emerges from isolation, it can recharge its core fan base and convert a new generation of followers.
But it remains to be seen whether broadcasts of cars driven by largely faceless drivers going around in circles in empty speedways will captivate TV audiences in the coming weeks.
Sunday’s race was the first of four NASCAR Cup events that will be crammed in an 11-day window in an effort to deliver the full 36-race season promised to Fox and NBC: Another race at Darlington is scheduled for Wednesday night, followed by two at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Coca-Cola 600 on May 24 and a considerably shorter event May 27.
AD
Sunday’s race was staged under unprecedented conditions.
To further safeguard the safety of participants, the race teams were limited to crews of 16, including the driver.
The customary practice and qualifying sessions the day before were canceled so the entire “race weekend” could be staged in a single day. That way, no hotel stays were necessary.
Before entering the track, which is roughly a two-hour drive from most NASCAR teams’ headquarters in the Charlotte area, all participants were required to submit to temperature checks by masked health-care workers while sitting in their cars.
Ryan Newman, a ‘walking miracle,’ is in field for NASCAR’s return at Darlington
And drivers had to remain isolated in their motor homes until summoned to their cars for the prerace festivities, which included an invocation delivered by a pastor from a remote location and a command to start engines delivered via split-screen video from a medley of health-care workers.
AD
Darlington Raceway is considered the most difficult track on the NASCAR circuit because of its imperfect layout and irregular surface. To run the fastest lap, drivers must come within inches of the concrete wall, over and over, without losing focus for more than three hours.
None had been in a racecar since March 8. And none had even tested his Darlington car before the green flag flew.
Not surprisingly, the field couldn’t even complete the first lap before a driver spun on the backstretch and hit the wall, bringing out the first caution of the day.
The rest of the event was largely a one- and two-car parade, halted by occasional single-car spins and skirmishes with the concrete wall.
It won’t be clear for weeks, of course, whether NASCAR’s many safety measures, developed in conjunction with public-health officials and an infectious disease specialist, truly guarded against transmission of the virus.
AD
But the immediate returns of NASCAR’s first race back were positive. Ideally, NASCAR’s protocol, which includes staging all races within driving distances from Charlotte through June 10 and barring fans for the foreseeable future, will offer a template for other sports to study and adapt as they plan their own resumption.
