Governor Of North Carolina Deems NASCAR 'Essential Business', Begins To Prepare For The Coca-Cola 600

Source - NASCAR can go forward with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway without fans in attendance at the end of May unless health conditions deteriorate in the state, the governor of North Carolina said Tuesday.

Gov. Roy Cooper said he and state public health officials have had discussions with NASCAR and the speedway located in Concord regarding safety protocols for staging the race. Cooper said the state offered input on NASCAR’s plan, but he believes the race can go forward on Memorial Day weekend for the 60th consecutive year.

“We believe that unless health conditions go down, we believe we can hold the Coca-Cola 600,” Cooper said. “I think NASCAR will be making that announcement, but that’s what will happen.”

NASCAR on Monday gave teams its latest revised schedule, which shows racing resuming May 17 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, followed by a second race at that track on May 20. The 600 would be held on May 24, followed by a second race at Charlotte on May 27.

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Cooper last week extended North Carolina’s stay-at-home order through May 8. Most teams are based in the Charlotte area and are expected to return to work this week as essential businesses.

We're back, baby! Kind of. There won't be any fans in attendance, but the cars will be running. Personally I don't have a problem with it. If they had went back to full capacity with 171,000 people in the crowd that would've been an issue, but they didn't. Instead they're working closely with NASCAR to partially reopen in the safest way possible. It's also a month away so that's a good thing. 

In a weird way I feel like 'iRacing' helped the sport. The whole thing felt more relatable. No one's driven a race car, but everyone's been interrupted by their kid while they're trying to get work done...

You got to know the drivers on a personal level.  It'll be interesting to see whether or not NASCAR officially goes ahead with the Coca-Cola 600, but I have a feeling they will. Fingers crossed everyone does what they need to do to continue to stamp out corona in the mean time so that will happen.

Now here's a shameless plug of Dave's podcast in the off chance that he reads this blog. 

NASCAR: Essential Business.