For race winner Kevin Harvick, he joined NASCAR Hall of Famers Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett by scoring his 50th career win in the most unusual of all settings.
“I didn’t think it would be that much different if we won the race, but it’s dead silent here,” Harvick said after exiting his car at the start/finish line. “We miss the fans.”
Harvick has won some of the biggest races in racing including two Brickyard 400s at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the 2007 Daytona 500 and the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series championship.
But he will always remember Cup win No. 50.
“Yeah, it was different,” Harvick said. “Part of what drives me and part of the enjoyment that I have is seeing the excitement that comes from those guys on my team in victory lane. I get more excited to see them excited than I do actually about winning the race.
“Today was really, really awkward for me because I thrive off of the enthusiasm from the crowd, but I also love to see the emotion come out of the guys on my race team and celebrate that with them. That part for me was a little bit tough.”
It may have been tough, but it was necessary. In order for the sport to move forward, a major series had to be the pioneer to blaze the trail and show other professional sports leagues the blueprint on how to return to competition.
IndyCar’s executives were watching on television, including Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles and IndyCar President Jay Frye. That series is scheduled to return to action with a one-day show at Texas Motor Speedway on June 6.
NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Officer Steve O’Donnell has been in communication with IndyCar and other major professional sports leagues throughout this process.
“It’s been a lot of different folks within NASCAR,” O’Donnell said during the post-race video conference. “I think some of us have talked to the NBA and certainly with IndyCar, World of Outlaws from a racing standpoint. We have talked about how we would do things with the PGA Tour. We’ve had conversations with them. A lot of folks just talking about what the best practices could be.
“We’re a little bit unique in how we’re able to go racing in terms of race cars, helmets, a lot of that equipment that’s already in place. So, a little bit of an advantage in terms of our athletes as well, all getting them to one race.
“I think everybody was really looking forward to seeing how this works. Anything we can share with other leagues; we want to do that. We certainly wanted to get out and try and showcase our sport early.
“But it’s in our best interests for all sports to be out there. I think today was a good example of that. I think it was a win for the fans. Kevin Harvick, I thought his remarks were tremendous at the end of the race, spot on, really representative of our entire NASCAR industry.”
It was also a big win for sports fans in a lonely nation of isolation and despair. Many have lost their jobs and wonder if they will ever get to return to work. Others continue to worry about contracting the potentially fatal virus.
On a Sunday in May of 2020, NASCAR helped provide a glimmer of hope that one day, we will be able to return to a hot sweltering Darlington Raceway packed with spectators watching fender-to-fender action on the race track, just like that day when a young sportswriter from Indiana covered the 1982 Southern 500.