Three tracks originally on the NASCAR Cup Series calendar will lose races in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Per a May 8 announcement, Chicagoland Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and Richmond Raceway will all lose race weekends in 2020 to accommodate NASCAR’s reconstruction of its race calendar for 2020 in response to its hiatus.
Chicagoland and Sonoma will not host NASCAR events in 2020 since they only had one original weekend of racing.
NASCAR elected to axe the three events for various reasons due to the pandemic in favor of keeping racing close to NASCAR’s home base in the Carolinas for the immediate future.
“Due to the current pandemic, NASCAR has faced several difficult decisions, including realigning race dates from several racetracks,” a NASCAR release stated. “These decisions were made following thorough collaboration with local and state government officials from across the country, including the areas of the affected racetracks. We thank all our fans for their support and we look forward to our return to racing.”
The move comes in response to NASCAR’s decision to host additional racing at Darlington Raceway and Charlotte Motor Speedway later this month. Darlington, which was only scheduled to hold one Cup event, will now hold three, beginning with a 400-mile contest on May 17 that will also serve as NASCAR’s return to racing after a nearly two-month hiatus, assuming its scheduled race later in the year remains at the track. Charlotte will also host three Cup races, with two on its oval course and another on its ROVAL.
A timetable for the resumption of NASCAR events beyond Darlington and Charlotte 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.