INDIANAPOLIS — The race tracks in the Commonwealth of Virginia were supposed to play a key role in getting racing back going again. NASCAR’s aim to their resumption of their season is to start local. Their plan is to race at venues in a close radius to Charlotte, North Carolina — the location of a majority of their teams.

They race twice a year at the Martinsville (VA) Speedway as well as the Richmond (VA) Raceway and both are within a few hours of the teams shops near the greater Charlotte area. Both of their spring races were also postponed, so a makeup date in June made the most sense, right?

Plus, the NTT IndyCar Series had a schedule race for June 27 in Richmond. Maybe a shared weekend for an IndyCar-NASCAR doubleheader on the .75-mile oval made sense? IndyCar needs NASCAR to help some with NASCAR’s $8.2-billion TV deal in tow. See, that TV package, one that nets NASCAR over $800 million annually if they can run 36 races, is the sole reason that they’re leading the charge in resuming sports activity. IndyCar, doesn’t have a deal like that in place as they not only not pay tracks for coming, they charge them instead.

It would be tough for tracks to pay IndyCar to come to them when fans can’t come through the gates to watch in person. That’s why Texas was a popular destination for a June doubleheader too. Texas, plans on hosting NASCAR at some point next month but not likely the first weekend of June. IndyCar, is supposed to race there on June 6. The best case scenario would be IndyCar to move that race back to a NASCAR weekend. Then, NASCAR’s best move would be to race at Richmond to close the month and share the weekend with IndyCar. After all, they’re sharing the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a week later.

Those plans were doused with cold water on Monday. Virginia’s governor laid out his plan to phasing the state back to a somewhat normal. His plan would keep racing and other sporting events out of their Commonwealth until mid July.

That doesn’t kick in until 10-12 weeks away, or more that says. 10 weeks from today is July 13. Here’s what Phase 2 says –

Seeing what Phase 2 says, how can IndyCar show up to Richmond on June 27? How can NASCAR stage a makeup race at either Martinsville or Richmond, or both, next month?

That would really put a damper on IndyCar getting started in June due to NASCAR not having any guarantee to go to Texas next month and there not being many, if any, scenarios for them to go to the track and both sides be profitable in doing so. With Richmond’s weekend being in peril, why race in Road America a week before? IndyCar’s best option may be to start on the Fourth of July in Indy.