NASCAR president Steve Phelps appeared on the NASCAR Weekly Podcast Thursday night, granting its four hosts a wide-ranging 30-minute interview. Among the many topics were when fans would be allowed to attend races:
“I think if you look at the schedule, it’s been announced that Pocono will be without fans. Governor (Tom) Wolf is a no. And when I talk about that, I’m not coming down on governor Wolf. That’s what he believes is right for his state. So, I’m not throwing barbs at all. I promise.
“After that, we’re at Indianapolis. Indy is and has been a no. Kentucky? Governor (Andy) Beshear has made it clear that he doesn’t believe we should be racing in front of fans.
“After that, it looks like we open up a little bit, right? So, the All-Star Race moves from North Carolina, because governor (Roy) Cooper wasn’t ready to give us the go to racing with fans.
“Governor (Bill) Lee in Tennessee has decided that he doesn’t care and that he would like us to race in front of fans, which is welcome… From there, we are looking at what other facilities we might go to.
“I think Governor (Chris) Sununu and New Hampshire will be a yes. And then before that we’re at Kansas (and) we’ll see. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to race in front of fans in Kansas. Most likely, we’ll be racing across the street here at Daytona international Speedway, hopefully in the time slot that we were originally scheduled to. I’m not ready to announce that, but I’d imagine governor (Ron) DeSantis would be a big fan of us racing in front of fans as well. So, we’ll see, you know, the more opportunities we can race in front of fans, but do it safely and responsibly, that’s what we want.”
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