NASCAR officials have elected to postpone this weekend’s (March 13-15) racing festivities at Atlanta Motor Speedway due to COVID-19, also known as Coronavirus.
Additionally, NASCAR racing at Homestead Miami Speedway next weekend (March 20-22) has also been canceled. Although nearly every team across all three NASCAR national touring series had shown up to the circuit, NASCAR restricted team access from the garage and told teams to pack up and leave the facility.
“We believe this decision is in the best interest of the safety and well being of our fans, competitors, officials and everyone associated with our sport,” a NASCAR release said. “We will continue to monitor this dynamic situation as we assess future events.”
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 13, 2020
NASCAR originally planned to hold all events originally scheduled this weekend, despite making the decision to bar spectators and non-essential personnel from the track for health and safety concerns. NASCAR had previously canceled this weekend’s ARCA Menards East Series at Five Flags Speedway.
NASCAR is the latest to join other high-profile motorsports entities, including IMSA, Formula 1, IndyCar and the NHRA, to cancel or postpone events scheduled in the near future.
A timetable for the resumption of normal racing procedures is unknown.
Never at a loss for words, Zach Gillispie is a young, talented marketing professional from North Carolina who talks and writes on the side about his first love: racing! Since joining Frontstretch in 2018, Zach has served in numerous roles where he currently pens the NASCAR 101 column, a weekly piece delving into the basic nuts and bolts of the sport. Additionally, his unabashedly bold takes meshed with that trademarked dry wit of his have made Zach a fan favorite on the weekly Friday Faceoff panel. In his free time, he can be found in the great outdoors, actively involved in his church, cheering on his beloved Atlanta Braves or ruthlessly pestering his colleagues with completely useless statistics about Delma Cowart.