NASCAR’s lengthy absence from world will come to an end on Sunday. This weekend’s race at the Darlington Raceway will be the first time in 70 days that they have competed in real life competition. See, the last race was held way back on March 8 at the Phoenix Raceway. While we didn’t know it then, what would occur a few days later would change the entire landscape of the world as we now know it.

The seriousness of COVID-19 grew louder, which basically shut down most of the world, including the United States. Our “normal lives” were greatly affected. So much so, we’re over two months later and our daily routines still aren’t anywhere close to what they were in March.

Despite that, NASCAR found a way to resume all activity — albeit in a much revised way. Part of their guidelines are one-day races without practice or qualifying, no fans in attendance and several social distancing measures in order to keep everyone safe. Another change that happened occurred on Thursday.

More: NASCAR’s Resume To Racing To Look Vastly Different Than Before

More: Darlington Race Preview

See, on the media side, we’re used to having multiple press conferences with drivers over the course of most race weekends. During the course of that race weekend, NASCAR will pick a day and parade several drivers in and out for brief 15-30 minute media availabilities. Also, and most recently, they’ll have a breakout session with several drivers for 15-30 minutes where you can walk up and ask them anything you want.

This week, it was all done virtually. Luckily, this isn’t new. NASCAR holds virtual press conference on conference calls with the media all the time. Some weeks, we get a driver during the week ahead of the race.

Today, well we got them virtually — some on a teleconference, others on zoom. It all started on the phone with Kevin Harvick, then Erik Jones, then Kurt Busch, then Matt Kenseth. After that, we switched to zoom to talk to Ryan Blaney, Chad Knaus and Ryan Newman.

While all of this was helpful, I can’t help but to think that this may become the new norm too. A lot of what we’re doing for race weekends may stick for the future and this very well may be one of them. Right now, everything is so limited at the track, there’s no need for many media members to even be there. In fact, only four print/online media members will actually be on hand at Darlington this weekend but they are confined to the press box. No pit or garage access to any of them. The FOX broadcast will have just one pit reporter (Regan Smith) while the booth of Mike Joy and Jeff Gordon will broadcast from the studios back in Charlotte.

So, NASCAR adjusted and took all interactions with the drivers and team to the virtual world and I’ll be honest — I kind of like it. I know I’ll miss the 1-on-1 in person interaction with the drivers, but in this world that we live in now, this may become normal. We get a day each week of this and post race NASCAR will zoom drivers into us. It’s more streamlined this way.

We may look back and say ‘we used to go to a room and have drivers come in and talk to us in person?’ That may down the road look foolish.

But, here we are and this was the main points from Thursday’s calls

• Darlington is going to be tough on the competitors — It’s been 70 days since these guys last raced and here we are doing it on one of the toughest tracks. Oh yeah, it’s going to be over 80 degrees and humid on Sunday too. Kevin Harvick noted that guys are going to be sore after the race from not having had these rigors on their bodies in over two months. Their necks are going to get a strain as a result of that. They’re also doing this in what he calls the “first hot race” of the season. It’s going to take a toll he says.
• You can’t take much from September race weekend to this weekend — While it’s the same race track that we come to during Labor Day weekend, the conditions are far different. “You obviously don’t know what condition you’re really kind of facing just because of the fact that Darlington last year went into the night,” Harvick said on Thursday morning. “This time it will be a relatively warm day in the sun most of the day, so Darlington is a very sensitive temperature track, so I think you kind of have to evolve as the race evolves.”
• No grip early — All the drivers said that they’ll have to take care of each other early. Darlington usually rubbers up pretty good before the Southern 500, but this weekend, there’s no practice or qualifying for Cup or even Xfinity Series racing like there is in September, let alone a 200 mile NXS race too. Kurt Busch noted to look at how gray the track is at the start of Sunday’s race. You never see it that way for a race and probably never will again. Harvick, agrees. “It will be a little bit tricky adjusting on your car at the beginning of the race just because of the lack of rubber on the race track. It’s a race track that really evolves as the rubber gets on the race track and last year it was tough to drive on top of the rubber, so you really had to find different spots on the race track to move around.” Both hope that everyone takes care of each other early because of that.
• Adjustments, adjustments, adjustments — Without preparing the car at the track before the race and the “road crew” staying away from the shop before the race as well, the cars that line up to race on Sunday will be far from perfect. “I think the biggest goal in this instance is to just not be in right field, try to get yourself in the ballpark and be able to adjust on it so you don’t have to have a rebuild and a reboot,” Harvick continued. “We’re trying to be solid through these first several races so you don’t shoot yourself in the foot and have to try to reboot in the middle of a race because that will be tough, but you’re definitely gonna have to make changes and evolve with the race track as it changes.” Every pit stop is going to be key at making adjustments but remember, these pit crews haven’t done live pit stops in 70 days as well. Erik Jones notes that it will be like Daytona when everyone is rusty at the start but as the race goes on, they’ll come to form. Crew Chief Chad Knaus notes that he hasn’t even been to the Hendrick Motorsports shop in over three weeks and when he did go in, he grabbed something for his printer at home. He hasn’t seen the Darlington car and probably won’t until it unloads on Sunday.

Quote Of The Day

Ryan Newman spoke at length during his availability and while this is the top quote section, he deserves more than just one quote. Everyone is obviously curious on his thoughts on his Daytona crash. We’ve heard updates from Newman over the course of the last couple of months, but Newman opened up more to us on Thursday. He said that it was confirmed that his helmet and HANS device were hit in the last lap crash and that his helmet was “crushed.” It’s amazing that he walked out of the hospital less than 48 hours later after being hit by a car at speeds near 200 mph in his head. Newman also said that the scans all said that he never lost oxygen to his brain and that some doctors diagnosed him with a concussion but some others also didn’t. Part of his treatment for the brain injury was being put in a medically induced coma and a line in his chest. Other than that, no other medical procedure was done.