NASCAR announced on Tuesday afternoon that race fans will soon be able to be permitted back inside of the gates again. Over the next two consecutive race weekends, both Homestead and Talladega will be opening their gates — albeit in limited capacity. While that sounds glorious, it’s not all to what you think it may be.

“Plain and simple, we want race fans back at our racetracks,” said NASCAR chief operations and sales officer, Daryl Wolfe. “Based on all of our interactions we’ve done so far, consumer research, independent conversations with ticketholders, overwhelmingly our race fans want to come back to the racetracks.

“This is nothing like it was back in March and until further notice, it won’t look anything like it did before COVID-19 hit.”

First off, it can’t look anything like it did in March. No way can these large facilities open the gates and allow thousands upon thousands of fans bake in the sun in the large aluminum grandstands within close proximity of each other any time soon. That’s why only 6,000 total people in the entire world can attend the next two Sunday’s. 1,000 combined military members, first responders and their families can attend Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 (3:30 pm ET, FOX, MRN) at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. If you’re not in South Florida, you’re not going to be able to go.

Then, for next Sunday’s GEICO 500 (3 pm ET, FOX, MRN) at the Talladega Superspeedway, the allotted attendance, grows to 5k. This though is limited to people who had tickets to this race back in April and to those who also live within 150 miles of the central Alabama race track too. If you had tickets to that race but lived in Indiana, you’re not eligible.

NASCAR gave an update on why. 

“We clearly understand that there is an immense responsibility here that comes with this exercise,” Wolfe continued. “We want to be very methodical, very measured, and we want to be cautious as we go through this. We have some great foundations and some great learnings that we can build off of as we kind of go through this next phase of bringing back the sport, again, very slowly, very cautiously and methodically.

“Every step of the way we have been in lockstep with local and state health officials, constant dialogue with public officials on the local, state and federal level, to make sure that we not only take advice from medical experts but they understand what we’re trying to accomplish.

“It’s a cautious, conservative approach.  We feel confident in our plan.  Also it doesn’t mean that we won’t also have additional learnings and adapt our plan going forward.  That’s the whole purpose of being very slow, methodical in phasing this in.”

So, NASCAR will be using a stair step approach in allowing fans back. Homestead’s attendance on Sunday will be around 1-percent of their overall capacity. Talladega, will grow to 5-7-percent. 

“We’ve taken a lot of data points, a lot of input,” Wolfe said on this approach. “Part of it was, what do we feel like is the right stair-stepped approach, knowing that we’re going to start the number we’re going to start at at Homestead-Miami Speedway in South Florida, what is the reasonable number to go from from Homestead to Talladega.

“Also if you look at percent of capacity, we’re in a low single-digit percentage on capacity at Homestead based on the thousand attendees.  If you kind of stair-step that to Talladega, it’s roughly double that.  Still very, very low capacity percentage.  You’re probably in the mid single digits at Talladega.

“The other thing, as I mentioned, was input from local public officials, medical experts, getting a sense from them what they were comfortable with as well. You kind of mix all that together, assess what the right approach is, and that’s the number we landed on that we felt was the right number to kind of, again, go from Homestead to Talladega.”

If everything goes to plan, then the next race up available to host fans would expand to 10+ percent.

So, when is that next race then?

Right now, we know the four races post Talladega won’t have fans. That’s not changing either. The doubleheader weekend at Pocono, Indianapolis and Kentucky have already said no to fans coming. The All-Star race at Charlotte hasn’t made a decision yet on if North Carolina will allow Fans or not, but the race at Texas in July 19 can. As we sit today, the track can host fans in 25-percent capacity. Kansas is after that and they as if now have stated no fans will be admitted then it’s to New Hampshire which isn’t sure yet if they will allow fans.

So, Texas would be next. But, even if you are able to attend a race soon, don’t expect to have access like the past.

“The race day experience is going to change,” said Wolfe. “The world has changed for a lot of reasons.  That’s the reason we’re starting small, being very measured in our approach.

“Race fans, we know how much they enjoy the race day experience, we love that they’re on track and at track and enjoying the best racing on the planet, but we also recognize the race day experience is going to change. So whether we supply PPE to guests that come in, have water available to your point, concession stands will be open, adjusting procedures based on what we learn.  We’re all going into this in a very measured approach, right?  The race day experience will be different.  It’s just different times.  Fans will have to adjust to that.  We will have to adjust on how we’re addressing these issues for fans.

“We think we have a very, very good plan in place, very detailed plan.  Make no mistakes, I’m sure there will be some key learnings coming out of Homestead that we will reapply and adjust for Talladega.”

First off, there’s no access to the infield for any race, for the foreseeable future. If you’re expecting to get an up close photo or selfie or autograph or use a hot pass, it’s not going to happen. I doubt that happens at all for the rest of the season in fact.

“You bring up a really huge point, which is no guests, no fans will be allowed in the infield or the TV compound,” Wolfe said of the fan experience and how to minimize the spread from fans to the garage and the garage to the fans. “We are going to do everything we can to protect the integrity of that footprint and our competitors.

“Our competitors come in from outside the community, but they will be contained in the infield.  Then the guests will be on the outside in the grandstands with their community, local community.  That’s how we plan to kind of hopefully avoid those issues.”

Secondly, don’t expect to be able to enter the grounds whenever you want. You’ll be told when and where to enter. You can’t tailgate before either. You’ll be told to enter certain gates depending on your tickets and where they are. You’ll have to go through a health screening and wear a mask at all times. No coolers will be permitted to minimize the amount of hands touching items. Concession stands will offer minimal items with most being prepared. Walking to your seats or the bathroom or the concession stand will have to follow a path.

“When you think about gate operations, gate policies, when you have fans coming in, people at the gates, they’re typically looking at bags, always looking at bags and coolers.  The inspection process, when you have hands going from one piece of personal belonging to the next, to the next, one cooler to the next, to the next, we think right now the proper approach, even though I understand what race fans are used to, but we’re all easing into this together, right now we believe this is the best policy for at least our first two events out of the gate.”

Basically show up at this walk into this gate, go to your seat through this path with your mask on and remain there for as long as you can. If you absolutely have to use the bathroom or get something from the concession stand, do so in an organized matter.

“We’re going to have a pretty robust screening of guests when they arrive at track,” said John Bobo NASCAR vice president of racing operations said of the process. “We’re going to have a lot of social distancing.  One of the advantages of NASCAR as a sport is many of our venues are massive.  It just gives us the opportunity to really socially distance a lot of people.

“We’re going to have a lot of hand sanitizing, hand washing.  One of the things that I’m kind of proud of to see is we’re going to have a clean team, a clean team that’s at track constantly cleaning everything very visibly for every guest that’s there to know we’re doing everything we can to keep them safe.”

While that sounds harsh, it’s not. It’s the safest way things to start to get back to normal. Be glad NASCAR is opening things back up. After all, the race is the main show and you’ll get a chance to witness it.