They called the race from nearly 1,000 miles away at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.The 29th NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway was the series’ first during the month of July in two decades of racing in Kansas City, Kan.; the track hadn’t hosted a July race at all since an Indycar Series event in 2006.NASCAR is perhaps the most fan-friendly major sport in North America. [L8N2CZ0R4]As the NBA, NHL and MLB work through scenarios that could get them playing again, NASCAR is ready to go — Sunday’s race the first of 20 taking place across seven Southern states over 36 days.NASCAR will be back at Darlington Raceway on Wednesday for the second Cup race in four days.While the action on the track was familiar, everything else was uncharted. NASCAR’s top series took the green flag at 6:48 p.m. Thursday, marking the return of the first non-exhibition major sporting event in Kansas City since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I felt like the vibe was back.“I felt like that fire and intensity in me was back, even more so than it has been, a piece that had been missing. The NBCSports broadcast crew didn’t make the trip, either. The speedway’s sweeping grandstand, visible from nearby interstates, starts to fill up with fans. MONTGOMERY, AL—Declaring that they refused to be part of any institution that would endeavor to compromise their way of life, the South reportedly announced Thursday that they had seceded from NASCAR following the auto-racing company’s Confederate flag ban. The crowds get so thick that you can’t read the giant blue and yellow “Kansas Speedway” logo. A haze of charcoal smoke from the infield and parking lots — a smell familiar to so many Kansas City sports fans — hangs thick in the air.The Fanwalk behind Victory Lane teems with activity. “It is weird just because there is nobody up there.“Usually you get out of the car and the crowd is screaming and yelling … today it was like, well, I don’t know really what to do here.For U.S. sports fans the Real Heroes 400 was the highlight of a weekend that saw sport slowly come back to life after most events were shuttered mid-March by the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed over 88,000 American lives.Following an Ultimate Fighting Championship card aired live from an empty arena in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, sport starved fans had their choice on Sunday of a charity skins game featuring golf greats Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson, Professional Bull Riding and NASCAR.U.S.
Fans take in a pre-race concert, stroll the garages looking for autographs, watch pre-race inspections mere feet from the cars and sign the start/finish line before the festivities begin. All race teams have fewer on-site personnel on hand this week. Autographs are ubiquitous, and those who purchase a “hot” pass can walk around the garages at almost any time during the day. NASCAR returns to sound of silence By Steve Keating 5/18/2020 Despite Trump’s pressure, most Americans think it is unsafe to reopen schools, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows The concourse underneath is a palette of race teams past and present.All that takes place under the near constant roar of stock cars practicing, qualifying and racing.The only part of that experience that remains for this week’s events, starting with Thursday night’s NASCAR Cup Series Super Start Batteries 400, is the roar of race car engines.
The cars were lined up silently on pit row until Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones, the virtual grand marshal for the first of five NASCAR races here through Saturday, gave the call for drivers to start their engines. He was thrilled to hear the cheers again when he took that checkered flag.“It just felt really good to get NASCAR back,” he said. Dillon leads 1-2 RCR finish in Texas Cup race. (Reuters) – Kevin Harvick and NASCAR both celebrated victories on Sunday as the stock car series returned to live racing from a two-month novel coronavirus forced hiatus at an empty Darlington Raceway.While the day unfolded with none of the bells and whistles that have made NASCAR North America’s most popular motor sport, on the track the race delivered as promised with plenty of bumper-to-bumper action.Harvick, winner of the 2007 Daytona 500, produced a masterful drive to pull away after a late restart to cross 2.15 seconds clear of Alex Bowman and Kurt Busch to collect his 50th career Cup win.The 44-year-old driver celebrated his victory in what has become typical NASCAR fashion with some tire burning donuts that would normally spark a massive roar of approval from the stands but in this race there was no one to witness the show.Not even the growl from 40 V8 stock car engines could make up for the silence as drivers exited the track to muffled applause from pit crews and officials.“I didn’t think it was going to be that much different and then we won the race and it is dead silent out here, so we miss the fans,” said a bewildered Harvick, standing alone on the track. And right now, they really don’t let us be around anybody at the racetrack,” Kevin Harvick, a three-time winner at Kansas Speedway, said. It’s impossible to predict what anything will look like by then — the pandemic continues to progress on an uncertain course.