MOORESVILLE, N.C. – It was Labor Day Monday back in 1982, when a transplanted Hoosier who had moved to North Carolina after graduating from Indiana University wandered into Darlington Raceway to cover the Southern 500.
Although this young Indiana native understood the history of the Indianapolis 500 and, at that time, the Indy Car National Championship, this was the first time at a stock car race.
Back then, the Southern 500 was held on Monday. It was a typically hot and sweltering morning that day, as this young reporter wandered around the garage trying to strike up a few interviews before the race.
Over there was a man wearing an ABC Sports yellow blazer named Chris Economaki. A decade later, this person would begin a relationship with Economaki’s National Speed Sport News that continues today through SPEED SPORT Magazine.
Although NASCAR had been around for 34 years at that time, it was new to this young reporter. By the end of the day, there was the legendary Cale Yarborough, sitting a few feet away in the old press box, his racing suit soaked with sweat, talking about how he had beaten Richard Petty for the victory in the 1982 Southern 500.
This was NASCAR. This was Darlington. It was hot. It was sunny. It was packed with spectators.
It all seemed to fit perfectly.
Fast forward 38 years later and it was another sunny day, but much of America was locked indoors. It has been that way since mid-March, when practically every state in the nation instituted one form of lockdown order or another because of an invisible virus known as COVID-19.
It had been two months since any form of major sports, other than horse racing or mixed-martial arts or professional wrestling, had taken place, and those were without spectators. Some of the smaller race tracks around the country had opened for business, but it was time for a top-level series to come out of the darkness and return to competition.
It happened on May 18, 2020. It was NASCAR. And, it was at Darlington.
It was a day when we all became NASCAR fans, no matter which form of racing you prefer. It was a day when Indy car fans watched NASCAR and Formula One fans also tuned in. Even sports fans who never watched NASCAR knew that NASCAR was returning to the track for a real-life race.
This wasn’t iRacing. This wasn’t a sim race. This was real race drivers climbing into real race cars prepared to do battle for 400 miles.
It all worked perfectly.
NASCAR must be commended for being the pioneer sports league to return to action. NASCAR and its staff, along with Darlington Raceway President Kerry Tharp’s crew at Darlington, pulled off an impressive feat. They were able to process more than 900 essential team members through medical evaluations and send them to work in the garage with medical masks and other protective equipment.
The media was limited to four print members representing the Associated Press, the Florence Morning News (the local paper), motorsport.com and Racer.com. The only FOX broadcaster on site was former Cup Series driver Regan Smith covering pit road. The rest of the FOX broadcast was called from the studios in Charlotte, N.C., and relayed to FOX’s main studio in Hollywood, Calif.
Everyone in the garage wore masks and maintained social distancing policies. Drivers stayed isolated in their motorhomes. Team owners were not allowed in the infield, most of them stayed at home. Richard Childress watched the race inside of an empty suite.
To those who were there, it was a surreal experience to have a 400-mile NASCAR race in front of completely empty grandstands.
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