Sports are back! Well…sort of.
Not everyone considers NASCAR a sport, and it’s easy to understand why. These are chariots of a different nature – tuned by physics and propelled by science, with a multitude of fuels expended that don’t come from within the human body.
But, as far as televised competition in which the participants are probably sweating, at least it’s something…
NASCAR returned to the track Sunday at Darlington after an eight-week pandemic-induced layoff, and it was a welcome return to something that looked kind of like normalcy … as long as you focused on just the track, and nothing else.
Like the rest of the country, NASCAR shut down in mid-March, just days before it was scheduled to run its Atlanta race. But as states near NASCAR’s hub of Charlotte began looking toward relaxing restrictions on gatherings and operations, plans began to develop about how to bring racing back.
“I got a call in late April from Steve Phelps wanting to know if we would be willing to host a race in mid-May,” said Kerry Tharp, president of Darlington Raceway. “I told him, ‘We don’t have anything on our schedule then.’ ”
In America, it could be several more weeks before other team sports return.
The German futbol league, The Bundesliga, returned this week, also to empty stadiums, but American sports such as baseball may not be back until at least July 4th, if not later.
