NASCAR heads to the pits, postpones events
After initially deciding to hold next weekend’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway without fans due to coronavirus fears, NASCAR is switching gears.
On Friday, NASCAR announced it will be postponing next weekend’s race events at Homestead, which includes the 2020Census.GOV 300. In addition, NASCAR also postponed this weekend’s events at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“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,” NASCAR said in a statement. “We will continue to monitor this dynamic situation as we assess future race events.”
With NASCAR’s decisions, nearly every professional sports league has put its season on hold. In the past 48 hours, the NBA, NHL, MLB and MLS all announced they would be suspending operations. The lone holdout is UFC, which will continue to hold events, but without fans in attendance.
In addition to the 2020Census.GOV 300, which was slated to take place on Saturday, March 21, Homestead-Miami was also scheduled to host the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series and the Dixie Vodka 400 that weekend.
Veteran driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the headliner for the 2020Census.GOV, part of the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
NASCAR’s visit to Homestead-Miami was slated to come in March this year in a change to the schedule. The races here had previously been run in mid-November as the final event of the season.
IndyCar also changed up plans and canceled races on Friday. The season was scheduled to open Sunday with a street race in St. Petersburg without fans.