NASCAR hits the racetrack again this week following the delay of 13 weeks

Drivers, restart your engines, NASCAR is running again.

This comes on Sunday, 13 weeks after the Dayton 500 raced. It began the new season with the Secret Service doing a security check on the fire-suit-clad pole-sitter and thousands of anxious fans waiting hours in line to pass through a metal detector.

There’s been some changes installed since then. Now, as drivers will be entering Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, they will have their temperatures taken and they will be wearing masks as they leave their isolated motor homes and make their way to their racing cars while there will be no fans allowed inside.

Faced with many of its teams falling into financial ruins, NASCAR is now waving the green flag on a plan it believes allows the series to safely return to racing. Only essential personnel will be permitted into the infield, with strict guidelines on social distancing, access and protective clothing.

And there will be one to boo reigning series champion Kyle Busch, no pre-raced concert, and no pomp, and probably no flyover.

This will be one of seven races so far announced in May to run at Darlington and Charlotte Motor Speedway, tracks within driving distance from teams’ North Carolina base. Four are in the elite Cup Series and the remaining three are lower-tier Xfinity and Truck Series races.

NASCAR hasn’t raced since March 8, so the Wednesday night events at Darlington and Charlotte are the only way to cram in some of the missed races. But these races will be nothing close to the weekly traveling circus NASCAR typically stages, and participants will be figuring out a new normal when they pull up to the gate at Darlington.

Says Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin: “Obviously there will be a huge microscope on how we’re doing things, making sure it’s done in a safe manner. For all of us, it’s just the unknown of making sure we’re doing it the right way.”

Much has changed since Joey Logano scored his second victory of the season — which so far consisted of just four cup races at Phoenix back in March. Kevin Harvick is still the points leader and Hamlin, Logano and Alex Bowman are locked into the playoffs as race winners.

Ryan Newman will be back in the field Sunday after his horrific clash on the final lap of the Daytona 500. He suffered a head injury that took him out of his Roush Fenway Racing Ford, but the long pause in the season brought him enough time to heal and receive medical clearance to race again on Sunday.

The series that has seen attendance and ratings drop for several years is desperate to get going and not just for the sake of its hard-hit teams. NASCAR has issued two rounds of layoffs during the coronavirus pandemic, and cuts last week decimated staffing at many racetracks, and those still employed took pay cuts, furloughs or forced vacations.

For now, Hamlin says drivers have faith in NASCAR’s process.

“I’m pretty certain,” he says, “that no matter what, we’re in an advantage because we’re a non contact, especially with the players themselves. I’m confident that we can go from our street car (or other vehicle) that we drive to the racetrack, get into our race car and not be within six feet of anyone, except for the person that is on the window net.”

Still, making money means being on the track even if the full 36-race Cup Series schedule isn’t possible. NASCAR says it wants to run at least seven Cup races within driving distances for the teams before it ventures outside the South.

This at least is good news that arrives with the familiar call of “Drivers start your engines.”