After a 70 day hiatus, NASCAR finally returned to action on Sunday at the Darlington Raceway. While the race went off without a hitch, it looked entirely different this time around than it did for their last race on March 8 at the ISM Raceway.

No practice. No qualifying. No fans. Limits on crew members, media and track personnel. The TV booth being done back in North Carolina. Social distancing and tons of screening. This was not remotely close to what we saw the last time out in Phoenix.

Now, we’re back for more. The quick turnaround is the quickest in decades. Wednesday night’s race (6 p.m. ET/FS1/MRN) will be the first scheduled Cup Series weeknight race in years.

Yes, the Truck Series has ran weeknight races recently at Eldora and yes we have had weeknight races that were a result of rain outs, but the Cup Series hasn’t scheduled a race for a weeknight in decades.

For years we’ve been wanting this time happen but it never came to fruition. All it took was oddly enough, COVID-19 to make this happen. So, for the first time in decades, NASCAR has a scheduled weekend night race.

Is this a glimpse into the future? Is the cuts in the weekend schedule something we will see more of?

This race will definitely shape the schedule for years down the road. If the race is a hit with large TV ratings, then NASCAR will surely have to take notice and make sure we have even more weeknight races in the future. I mean, without much competition on normal weeknights during the spring/summer, NASCAR has a chance to go outside of their comfort zone in order to fill a need for a major sport on a weeknight. That can eliminate some weekend races off the schedule too, meaning we end much sooner than November.

While I get it could be tough to plan around fans to attend the weeknight races, without fans in the stands again on Wednesday, there was no need for that factor in a decision to try this out.

Wednesday nights success, or even lack there of, could sway which way weeknight races go for the future.