Smithley, Ganassi among those ready to get NASCAR back on track

Over the weekend, UFC led the way for the return of live sports during the coronavirus pandemic, and on Sunday, NASCAR will follow suit. The series plans to resume its racing schedule at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.

The 400-mile race will kick off a stretch of seven races in 11 days during May, and all seven will be held at Darlington or Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The cup series will start Sunday, then have its second race May 20 at Darlington, before heading to Charlotte for races May 24 and 27.

The Xfinity series will race May 19 at Darlington and again May 25 at Charlotte. NASCAR’s truck series will have one race during this period: May 26 at Charlotte.

NASCAR drivers have been sidelined since mid-March, so they have had to find other ways to occupy themselves. Along with other drivers, Ligonier native Garrett Smithley, who drives the No. 51 car for Rick Ware Racing, took up iRacing to fill the void. Although Smithley had some success while doing so, the 28-year-old is excited to get back to live racing.

“I think this is a great first step, not only for NASCAR and sports in general but for us as a country,” Smithley said. “I think it shows that NASCAR has done a really good job of trying to put together this schedule. Hopefully, this is the first step. Hopefully, we can get fans back, and, hopefully, we can get everything back to normal before the end of the year.”

While the cars are returning to the track, the process of each race might feel a little different for the drivers. For safety precautions, NASCAR eliminated qualifying rounds.

Along with that, Smithley said drivers and team staff are having to follow the 6-foot social distancing rule, along with wearing masks as well as a lot of disinfecting. But team owner Chip Ganassi, a Fox Chapel native, doesn’t believe fans watching on TV — Fox will televise Sunday’s race — will notice a difference in the product.

“They have changed some fundamental rules that should make it very palpable for the teams, and I think some of those changes are going to be seamless to the fans watching on TV,” Ganassi said. “The people watching on TV will see the same product.”

Sports fans around the country have been clinging to re-runs of past tournaments and games, and for the second time in just over week, they will have live sports to watch. Because of that, Ganassi believes there will be an uptick in viewers.

“NASCAR and UFC are leading the way here to bringing live sports back,” he said. “I think the interesting thing is, if there is one — I don’t know, if there is one bright spot in this pandemic — it’s that we all realize how much people are clamoring for live sports on TV.”

But the fans aren’t the only ones who have been missing the competition. Although a few of them, such as Smithley, have competed in the iRacing series, it’s not the same as being on the track.

“I think everyone will be excited to be there and be in their cars, and, you know, obviously, we are all competitors. We all want to beat each other,” Smithley said. “As soon as we strap into our cars and we go green, on the first lap or two get a feel for our cars, then it will be business as usual. Everything else goes away, and we try to go as fast as possible and keep our car cleans.”