Harvick on top as NASCAR races on through pandemic
After the sporting calendar was decimated in mid-march as the COVID-19 pandemic ripped across the planet, it was the NASCAR Cup that stuck its head up with the announcement that it would be the first motorsport series to return.
The risks and rewards on offer for NASCAR were simple: although the number of people on-site was drastically slashed, a pit garage and paddock is ripe breeding ground for a virus to spread exponentially if proper precautions were not strictly followed. On the other hand, with other major American sports such as the NBA and NFL suspended, and not a lot going on elsewhere, NASCAR had the opportunity to showcase a blueprint on how to safely restart its season.
The first block of four races announced for the comeback were two each at Darlington and Charlotte, in South and North Carolina respectively, chosen for their proximity to the NASCAR hub in Charlotte.
Unlike some other racing championships that stuck rigidly to their weekend formats, NASCAR opted to be dynamic and try something different. Ten of the 11 events since the restart (the 600-mile Charlotte race aside) had no practice or qualifying, and grids have been set by random draws or by reversing the top 20 from the previous race.
The beneficiaries have been those who could best adapt to this new style of racing, with Kevin Harvick (Stewart-haas Racing Ford), Brad Keselowski (Team Penske Ford) and Denny Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) the dominant trio.
Between them, they have won eight of the 11 rounds, with average finishing positions of 7.7, 7.9 and 8.2 respectively. Harvick and Hamlin have each won three races since the mid-may return, and Keselowski two.
Nobody else has been able to find much consistency, although Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott each have six top-five finishes to their names, including a sole victory apiece.
Meanwhile, reigning champion Kyle Busch has still yet to record a Cup win in 2020. The Gibbs driver has finished second twice since the season resumed, but shunted heavily out of the Sunday Pocono race last weekend. Jimmie Johnson’s final season has yet to get going – the seven-time champion crashed out of the lead in the first race back at Darlington and was disqualified from second in the 600-miler at Charlotte.
Arguably the biggest star of NASCAR’S return has been Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace Jr, not for what he’s done on-track, but off it. Wallace, the sole black Cup driver, became the focal point for addressing NASCAR’S somewhat sketchy track record on racism after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the end of May sparked protests worldwide.
Wallace has been instrumental in leading NASCAR’S response, including the banning of the Confederate Flag at circuits and running a special Black Lives Matter livery at Martinsville.
An FBI and NASCAR investigation found that a garage-door pull rope in Wallace’s garage at Talladega had been fashioned into a noose in 2019, and it was just by coincidence that he was assigned that garage. Noose or not, the images of an emotional Wallace being pushed in the #43 by fellow drivers up the pitlane for the national anthem will be remembered for a long time.