How NASCAR saved one race from indefinite suspension

The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season is an at effective standstill as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Fortunately for one track, a schedule change made last year saved it from an indefinite suspension.

For the first time since the 2001 NASCAR Cup Series season, the season finale is set to be held at a track other than Homestead-Miami Speedway this year. Last March, it was confirmed that Phoenix Raceway would be the host of the final race of the 2020 season in November.

But what nobody saw coming was the track hosting the final race before another lengthy stoppage in action…in March.

The four-turn, 1.022-mile (1.645-kilometer) oval in Avondale, Arizona hosted the fourth race of the 36-race season back on Sunday, March 8, and what a different world it was then compared to what it is now.

More from NASCAR Cup Series

Not since Team Penske’s Joey Logano took the checkered flag ahead of Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick to win this 316-lap race has there been any NASCAR action.

Unfortunately, there won’t be any more through at least the end of April, as NASCAR has postponed the next seven races on the schedule as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

NASCAR Cup Series postponements and cancellations: TRACKER

Regarding when the season will get back underway, there is no definitive answer to that question.

Next non-postponed/canceled race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule: TRACKER

As of now, the next non-postponed race on the schedule is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 9 at Martinsville Speedway. This is subject to change, although NASCAR does still plan to run all 36 races on the schedule.

2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule: TRACKER

Again, nobody saw this coming. But while nobody saw this coming, NASCAR inadvertently saved a race from being indefinitely suspended last March when they released the 2020 schedule, and this had nothing to do with Phoenix Raceway.

After hosting one race per year from 1997 to 2003, Auto Club Speedway hosted two races per year from 2004 to 2010. But since 2011, it has had only one race date. From the 2011 season all the way up to the 2019 season, it hosted the fifth race of the season.

But among the many schedule changes for the 2020 season that NASCAR confirmed last March was that the annual West Coast Swing would start one week earlier, and Auto Club Speedway would be moved up to become the second of three races in that West Coast Swing instead of the third.

As a result, this year’s 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.0-mile (3.209-kilometer) oval in Fontana, California was the third race on the schedule, and it has already taken place. It was Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman who took the checkered flag to win the race on Sunday, March 1.

This race also marked the 26th and likely final start for seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson at his home track. He announced in November that he is set to retire from full-time competition following the 2019 season.

In 26 starts at the track, the 44-year-old El Cajon, California native never missed a lap, setting an all-time record that will likely never be broken in the process. He placed seventh this year.

Any other year, this would have been the fifth race on the schedule, and it would have been the race scheduled to take place next when the NASCAR season was brought to a screeching halt.

But not this year.

Of course, one track ended up getting a raw deal here as well, and that track was Atlanta Motor Speedway, which was scheduled to host the fifth race on the schedule after hosting one of the season’s first four races in 34 of the last 38 seasons leading up to 2020.

The four-turn, 1.54-mile (2.478-kilometer) oval in Hampton, Georgia was scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 15. At first, NASCAR altered the event due to COVID-19 fears so that it would take place without any fans in attendance. But that was only the beginning, as the race ended up being the first to be postponed indefinitely.

Fortunately for Auto Club Speedway, they don’t have to worry about rescheduling like they would have had to in pretty much any other year.

Top 10 NASCAR drivers of all-time. dark. Next

For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.

Home/NASCAR Cup Series