Yahoo Finance Coronavirus: NASCAR VP declines to answer if anyone has tested positive after the restart of the 2020 season
Has anyone working in NASCAR tested positive for the coronavirus since the season resumed on May 17? We don’t know.
NASCAR vice president John Bobo was asked Tuesday during a news conference if the series had seen any positive coronavirus cases in the weeks after the 2020 season restarted at Darlington. He declined to answer the question directly.
“A lot of that information is confidential, whether we have or we haven't,” Bobo said. “We get that information from people that we work with. We will take all the responsible steps to make sure that we have advised the people that individual may have been in contact with of what's needed.”
“I think what's unique about every COVID positive, each presents its own set of unique facts. What our policy is, when those things start to come in, we will work with people and our medical experts to see exactly who needs to be notified, what we need to do responsibly and work with any local officials if we need to.”
NASCAR cannot comment on specific cases if someone within the industry has tested positive because of medical privacy laws. However, it could note that no one had tested positive if no one has tested positive so far or simply say that a specific number of participants have tested positive.
As college football programs bring their players back to campus for summer workouts many are revealing how many players have tested positive for coronavirus. UCF said on Tuesday that three of its returning 60 players had tested positive and would be quarantined.
NASCAR is also not testing participants for coronavirus directly, though it’s implemented social distancing and mask-wearing protocols for everyone attending races along with temperature scans for everyone who enters the track. It’s even asked team members who travel to races to not go to race shops during the week to help keep people separated as much as possible to stop the spread of coronavirus.
Bobo’s answer came during a news conference after NASCAR said 1,000 fans would be attending the June 14 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and 5,000 fans would be at Talladega on June 21. Fans attending those races will be required to wear face coverings and stay apart from each other in addition to being subject to temperature scans when entering the track.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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