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Several NASCAR Cup Series drivers are lobbying for a practice session prior to the Aug. 16 race on the Daytona International Speedway road course, but the sanctioning body doesn’t seem particularly inclined to give them one.
With the exception of the Coca-Cola 600 in May, NASCAR has not conducted practice or qualifying since returning from the coronavirus shutdown on May 17.
And during a SiriusXM NASCAR Radio interview on Monday morning, NASCAR senior vice president of competition Scott Miller doesn’t expect anything to change for the events scheduled through Aug. 30.
"Beyond that, I think, is still a little bit up in the air," Miller said. "To have practice and qualifying, we have to have more people on the rosters. There are a lot more things that need to go on in the garage, so very much more difficult to execute all the safety protocols with the COVID-19.
"To get back anything different than what we’re doing now is really going to take a significant change in sort of the landscape on COVID-19. At least through Dover, it will be the draws as we know it."
Watkins Glen International was meant to host three NASCAR divisions on the weekend of Aug. 16, but a required two-week quarantine for all entrants into the state of New York ultimately canceled the event.
So instead, NASCAR moved the races to another road course it owns, the one used by IMSA during the legendary Rolex 24 Hours each January. The problem with this approach is that no one has ever driven a stock car on the infield road course.
"I really, personally, would have liked to have seen even 30 minutes to get us acclimated to some braking points," Denny Hamlin said. "I definitely understand the owner’s side of it and NASCAR’s side of it where you don’t want to have to prepare backup cars just in case.
"Heck, maybe even—I’m just politicking—why not have the implication of knowing that this 30-minute practice session, if you wreck, you finish last. Just like you would in the race. If someone is going to wreck in that 30-minute practice session, they were more than likely going to wreck in the race anyway.
"I think that we can take it easy, we can go slow and make sure we just get acclimated before we go green. You don’t want to put on a bad race that’s just filled with cautions. I worry that could be the case."
When the NASCAR Xfinity Series made its debut last month at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, it did so with two practice sessions the afternoon before so drivers could acclimate to the circuit.
The Cup Series will use its current short track and road course rules package, with 750 hp and low downforce. That has generated speculation that speeds will be too high and that NASCAR would have to insert an additional chicane into the layout to slow them down.
NASCAR has yet to confirm a layout or race length for any of the races that weekend. The Xfinity Series, Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series will all compete on the infield road course that weekend prior to the Cup Series main event.
Cup Series drivers will not be allowed to compete in any of the undercard races.
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Clint Bowyer is one of 11 active Cup Series drivers with Rolex 24 experience on the circuit but not in high-powered, low-downforce stock cars.
"I voted to practice at Daytona," Bowyer said. "I guess I’m probably unique in at least I have some laps on the racetrack—it was a long time ago, I don’t even remember those laps but I ran the Rolex 24 and have some experience on that track. But that being said, not in our cars and anything else.
"I think it’s a tall order to show up there and run a track that we’ve never been on before with the tire combination with the package, with the aero, horsepower, we’ve never seen before, it’s going to be a crapshoot for everybody.
"I think there’s definitely drivers and teams that have experience running that Rolex that will be ahead of the pack, ahead of the curve for sure. These are challenging times. To ask the teams to come up with a unique car and again for a backup car and everything else. It’s saving them money. I get it. Everything is tight right now. You’ve got to give and take in this scenario, and I think that’s definitely a give for the Daytona race."
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