NASCAR Cup Series: Where things stand upon return to action
By Asher Fair
Where do things stand as far as points and the playoff picture are concerned upon the return of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season?
10 weeks is just shy of the usual length of a NASCAR offseason. It equates to 70 days, which is roughly two and one-third months. Offseasons are typically around three months in length.
But we aren’t in an offseason, although it may feel like we have been for the last several weeks. The coronavirus pandemic brought the 2020 Cup Series season to an unexpected stoppage following the race at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 8.
10 weeks? That’s just the distance between race number four and race number five on what is still hoped and believed to be a 36-race season.
NASCAR confirmed at the end of April that action is scheduled to resume with four Cup Series races in an 11-day span from Sunday, May 17 to Wednesday, May 27.
The first two races are scheduled to take place at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, May 17 and Wednesday, May 20 while the second two races are scheduled to take place at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 24 and Wednesday, May 27. NASCAR has since confirmed five more Cup Series races from Sunday, May 31 to Sunday, June 21.
While there won’t be any fans in attendance for these races and the 2020 schedule will likely see many more changes, this is a great step in the right direction not just for NASCAR and auto racing but for the sports world in general, with the rest of the sports world still at an effective standstill and looking at potential ways to get competition rolling again.
All eyes are now on NASCAR, and since it has been 10 weeks between races four and five on the schedule, let’s take a look at how things stand heading into this Sunday afternoon’s 293-lap race around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) oval in Darlington, South Carolina.