Brad Keselowski 'terribly conflicted' about a potential NASCAR return in May
As all signs point to NASCAR attempting its return to real racing sometime in May, Brad Keselowski isn’t sure how he feels about the idea.
In an interview with the Charlotte Observer published Wednesday, Keselowski said that he’s “terribly conflicted” about the possibility of NASCAR racing next month. The Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway is still scheduled for May 24 and various reports have suggested that NASCAR could run a race at a different track the week before.
Both the governors of Florida and Texas have said they’d like their states to host a NASCAR race soon. Texas is set to host the IndyCar Series and Camping World Truck Series on June 6.
From the Observer:
“I’m terribly conflicted,” Keselowski said. “I think it’s important that we do things to get back going as fast as we can, but then on the same token, I really don’t want to see anyone get sick that shouldn’t get sick when it’s preventable, so I’m really torn. I really sympathize for those who have to make these decisions because there’s really not a good option. We can’t keep sitting around doing nothing, because we’re draining vital resources and quite frankly, we can’t afford it. But on the flip side, we also have a responsibility to each other to not expose one another to harmful contagions and that’s part of our responsibility as a community. Those two things seem to be at odds. I know that’s not really a clear answer, but I don’t know if there is a clear answer.”
Keselowski is right; there really isn’t a clear answer for NASCAR. The sanctioning body could be a lot safer and wait until sometime until June or later to resume the season. But it’s also publicly said that it wants to run all 36 Cup Series points races. That’s important for sponsorship across all aspects of the series. TV networks, tracks, teams and even NASCAR itself can’t get the revenue they’re expecting if some races are canceled.
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NASCAR has already dealt with at least one of its own employees having the coronavirus. NASCAR told teams at the end of March that a sanctioning body employee who was at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 13 before NASCAR put the season on pause tested positive for the coronavirus.
Any races that NASCAR would run in May — and likely for the foreseeable future — would be done without fans. But it’s impossible to social distance while performing a pit stop or working on a car in the garage. There would still be hundreds of people at the track to get a race run and enforcing a six-foot radius around everyone would be flat-out impossible.
But it sure seems that the reward of getting postponed events completed is outweighing the risk of people getting sick at the track for NASCAR at the moment. And given the tenuous financial situation for many teams in and other businesses around NASCAR, you can see why from a business perspective.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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