CHARLOTTE, N.C. – NASCAR has decided it will not grant COVID-19 relief during the Cup Series postseason, meaning a positive coronavirus test could end a driver’s bid for the 2020 championship.
The playoffs begin Sunday at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina without a safety net for the 16 participants during the pandemic. It’s up to each driver to protect himself from COVID-19, understanding there is no cushion for missing a race.
“I’m probably not going to go to college and hit up a keg stand,” Stewart-Haas Racing’s Clint Bowyer said. “If you have COVID, you can’t race. It’s not a judgment call.”
NASCAR at its discretion grants waivers for illness, emergency or personal reasons. The waiver maintains playoff eligibility, if the driver qualifies, but no points are awarded while sidelined. A waiver during the playoffs would allow the driver to return once medically cleared, but he would have lost valuable points needed to advance into the next round.
There are scenarios in which missing a race would not cripple a driver’s title chances. Kevin Harvick, for example, accumulated enough bonus points during the regular season to ensure he should advance for several rounds. A driver could also return from missing a race, win an event during that round and earn an automatic advancement into the next round.