NASCAR drivers on returning to racing amid coronavirus pandemic
Kurt Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. join ‘The Daily Briefing.’
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Kurt Busch thinks NASCAR can be a beacon for other sports hoping to restart amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Busch met President Trump before the 2020 Daytona 500. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver said Sunday’s race at Darlington Raceway is a “genuine opportunity, a light at the end of the tunnel that people can see.”
He said it could offer a sense of balance and hopes that if NASCAR can do it, so can other leagues.
Busch has been through something like it before.
He was a driver in the series in 2001, when it was postponed for two weeks after the September 11 terror attacks. He said everyone wanted to get back to the track then, and when they did, everyone was wearing red, white and blue.
“The electricity was beyond.”
Things are different this time around. There won’t be any spectators in Darlington, and teams and staff will be taking safety precautions that include wearing masks and social distancing, but he says they’ll be on the other side of the TV cameras: “We’ll be able to feel it.”
And it likely won’t only be traditional NASCAR fans watching the race, but many sports fans who have been starved from any action the past two months, potentially helping the series reach a new audience, if the show is good.
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“It is a big moment, but time will tell what this does for our sport,” Busch says.
And it all could go wrong in a hurry.
The race is being held without practice or qualifying, to limit the time people need to spend at the venue. As a result, the drivers won’t know how their cars will behave until the green flag drops and they make that first left turn onto banking. Darlington is a tricky track on its best days, and without any fresh rubber laid down on it and temperatures expected in the 90s, there’s no telling what to expect.
(Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
Combined with being away from the car for so long and the restricted working conditions in the infield and pits, Busch says he’d rate the challenge “a 9.5, it might even be a 10,” and that physical and metal levels “will be tested.”
The Real Heroes 400 will be broadcast live on Fox at 3:30 pm ET, Sunday, May 17.