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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowTwo NASCAR races—including the Brickyard 400—and an IndyCar race will take place without spectators when they run during the July 4 weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, track officials announced Thursday.
IMS officials said allowing spectators would be too difficult because of possible social distancing restrictions in place for the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to the annual Brickyard on July 5, NASCAR also plans to run a 150-lap NASCAR Xfinity Series race on the IMS road course on July 4. IndyCar also is scheduled to hold the 85-lap GMR Grand Prix on the road course on July 4.
Track officials said Stage 5 of the state’s reopening plan, which begins July 4, would allow sporting events to be held under social distancing guidelines. But Marion County is behind that reopening schedule, creating too much uncertainty.
“While we certainly worked diligently to run our events with spectators, we reached a point where we needed to make a final decision because the race weekend is less than a month away,” Penske Entertainment Corp. President & CEO Mark Miles said in a written statement. “Today, it’s not possible to be confident that Indianapolis will be at Stage 5 of the state’s reopening plan by the Fourth of July weekend.”
Officials said they hoped to welcome fans to the rescheduled Indianapolis 500 in August.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced a five-stage plan last month to reopen the state with the final phase tentatively scheduled to include a return to sporting venues on July 4. Marion County, however, only recently entered the third stage.
In recent years, Brickyard 400 weekend attendance has waned. Last year’s estimated crowd of 60,000 was an improvement over 2018. But with approximately 235,000 permanent seats at the speedway, there could be plenty of space for fans to be socially distanced should the restrictions loosen.
NASCAR resumed its season May 17 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. IndyCar is set to open the season Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway.
Officials said this year’s Brickyard 400 has been renamed the Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400 Powered by Big Machine Records. Sponsor Big Machine Distilleries began using its some of vodka distillery operations to make hand sanitizer in early March.
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It’ll be interesting to see if Hogsett steps up to the plate and comments on this decision by Mr. Penske. There had to be some private discussions/negotiations between IMS and the mayor’s office which failed to reach a mutually satisfactory compromise. If we can’t socially distance “correctly” within the massive speedway complex, where can we?
A lost opportunity to help our suffering local economy…..
A better question is, will any “Journalist” take a break from 24/7 riot porn to document the financial damages from this and make Joe and Virginia document their position?
Not a word about social distancing and riots. Watching officers and protesters go hand in hand was nice to see but how do you explain that you can not do it on a race day? This is the biggest fraud brought upon by the media to forward their liberal agendas. Just take a drive around your surrounding counties and tell me how by not allowing spectators will help the spread of the Covid? These same lock down Marion county residents are driving across the street to shop, dine and socialize. Maybe the surronding counties should build a wall around your county.
15-lap NASCAR Xfinity Series race?
Thanks for the edit, 150 makes more sense.
I’m going to get 50 friends, with our faux face masks, alcohol cocktails (for consumption), couple cans of spray paint and we are going to knock down the gates, loot the merchandise tents and watch the race. Your not going to get prosecuted. I’m going to paint RFM every where in Speedway, Race Fans Matter or RFPE-Root for Penske Entertainment. Maybe Mayor Numbnuts will join us if he is still not hiding under the his bed. IMPD and MCSD are encourage to join us, you need to bring nothing we will be glad to serve you for the day.
There won’t be any merchandise stands.
I wouldn’t loot them if there were, spray paint, or knock the gates down.
Why bother? Seriously, why. Just show a race from 1997 or whatever and save everyone the trouble.