CONCORD, N.C. — Like nearly every racing sanctioning body and race track in the United States and across the world, NASCAR has entered uncharted territory.
On Monday the sanctioning body announced the postponement of all national series events through May 3 with the goal of returning to competition on May 9 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
NASCAR President Steve Phelps, in a teleconference with members of the motorsports media on Tuesday afternoon, said the sanctioning body is working on a number of options regarding the rescheduling of the postponed events at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Richmond (Va.) Raceway and Dover (Del.) Int’l Speedway.
“We intend to race all our 36 points races as well as the All-Star event. What those look like at this particular point we’re looking broadly about what our options are,” Phelps said. “At this particular point we would like to finish the season at Phoenix and keep the playoff portion intact. With that said, it will require a lot of different opportunities for us to look at. We’re in the process of doing that.”
In the hours since NASCAR announced the postponement of racing through May 3, a number of scenarios have been thrown around among NASCAR insiders regarding potential rescheduling options, including doubleheaders, midweek races and more.
Phelps said there are no specific details regarding those options that NASCAR is comfortable announcing.
“No specifics around midweek races. I’ve heard about doubleheaders, different things,” Phelps said. “At this particular point a lot of things on the table for us to look at, working with our race teams, working with our race tracks to make sure the things that we’re putting on the table are feasible for us to do.
“We are working with our media partners, with FOX, with NBC. If you kind of consider what is going to happen, we’re in this period right now where the major sports are shut down from participating. At some point soon we hope to all get back to finding that escape that our fans are all looking for, in our case getting back to racing.
“We are working with FOX and with NBC to understand what windows might be available. That will come as we develop this schedule.”
Phelps said NASCAR chose to postpone events rather than outright cancel them because the sanctioning body felt like it had a commitment to its fans to run the entire 36-race schedule.
“For us, we have a commitment to our fans that we’re going to run all the races,” Phelps said. “We have a commitment to all our competitors that we run all the races. We have a commitment to the stakeholders broadly that we’re going to run all the races.
“We are going to do everything in our power to get these races in. If there are other variables that happen that would suggest we can’t do that, we’ll look at those at that time.”
Phelps confirmed that NASCAR would prefer not to change or adjust the playoff schedule as it currently stands. Four of the tracks with postponed events are scheduled to host races during the NASCAR playoffs.
“We are interested in getting these postponed races done prior to our playoff starting, so not running doubleheaders in those races that have been postponed during the playoffs,” Phelps said. “That is the goal that we’re working toward right now.
“Again, if there are other variables that change in the future, we’ll adapt to those as well.”
While there won’t be any real NASCAR racing available for fans to consume for the foreseeable future, Phelps noted there will be plenty of iRacing options available for interested fans.
“I think in general we are interested in trying to satisfy our fans with different content, whether that’s through eSports or iRacing. Tonight, for example, we have a NASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series event at 9 p.m. on NASCAR.com.
“But there are other things, too. There are discussions we’re having with FOX about what things we can do, discussions we would have with NBC, things that we can put through our own channels that satisfy our fans.
“Our fans are obviously thirsty for this content. We want to provide it to them smartly and have interesting content as opposed to just repurposing some of the content that’s already been done.”