By Bob Pockrass
In an article on Thursday, we described the ways to win the NASCAR Cup Series title. There was one item left out.
Don’t get injured, and this year, that includes don’t test positive for COVID-19.
A driver who doesn’t participate in an event doesn’t earn points, and missing one race pretty much ruins a shot at the title in NASCAR’s three-race-rounds, elimination format. The team remains eligible and can win what’s known as the "owner’s title," which runs under the same format and pays the organization the same as the driver’s title, but lacks the notoriety of the driver’s crown.
NASCAR isn’t testing for COVID-19, so it is up to drivers to get tested if they have had close contact with someone or have symptoms. A team or NASCAR could require a test if they have knowledge of a driver having contact with someone with the virus.
Drivers (as well as all crew members) are asked each week prior to entry to the race track if they have any symptoms, have had contact with someone with the virus, or have taken fever-reducing medication in the last six hours that they aren’t supposed to take.
Two drivers during the regular season missed races because they voluntarily went and got tested. Jimmie Johnson’s wife tested positive so he went out of an abundance of caution and tested positive. He tested negative in the days later. Austin Dillon was having mild symptoms and felt something was not right, tested positive and missed one race.
While there has been some chatter on whether NASCAR could come up with a formula for a driver who misses a race with the virus, NASCAR President Steve Phelps confirmed Tuesday that NASCAR would not change its rules – if a driver doesn’t race, the driver can’t earn points in any fashion.
Johnson said NASCAR can’t change the points rules for the playoffs from what they were to get into the playoffs, a 10-race series that begins Sunday at Darlington Raceway.
"The precedent has been set and you’ve got to see it through," Johnson said. "I haven’t had that luxury and although it might just be a few points I would have received, I didn’t get the points for the Brickyard and wasn’t under the impression that was ever an option.
"So I think the bed has been made and they need to see it through the rest of the year."
Johnson missed the playoffs by six points, and it will be debated forever if his test was a false positive (he has no idea if it was) and potentially cost him a shot at the playoffs.
"It would suck, but they understand this is bigger than they are," said retired driver Jeff Burton, whose is an NBC analyst and whose son competes in the Xfinity Series. "It would be a hard conversation with yourself but at the end of the day, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and do the right thing.
"And our drivers have a history of doing the right thing."
But will they if they have mild symptoms? They obviously don’t want to get seriously ill but a driver never knows how many shots at a championship will come during a career.
"As far as somebody getting sick and hiding it, I don’t know," said Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski. "I don’t believe necessarily at this moment that the testing is strong enough for me to have confidence that somebody does or doesn’t have it more times than not.
"So I guess it’s a really open-ended question that I don’t know if I have an answer for."
Drivers have always been a little wary of going to the NASCAR medical center if they feel they have an issue they could manage on their own rather than potentially be told by a doctor that the driver cannot race.
"[On whether] drivers trying to hide injuries, we work and control the things that we're going to control and understand that the drivers, when they're coming into the bubble, are going to follow the same protocols that we've been following," Phelps said.
"And I would say that if you look at the success that we've had to date, that the protocols, by and large, are working very well."
NASCAR’s protocols mostly isolate the drivers at the race track, with them going from their cars to their motorhomes to their cars.
"When I get to the racetrack I’m basically locking myself in a bus by myself for three or four hours until it’s race time and then I get in the car to race and I’m by myself for another three or four hours, so I’m not really sure, other than just doing nothing, what more precautions we could take," Keselowski said.
Most forms of motorsports in the United States don’t test. They believe crews and drivers don’t have the physical contact that there is in other sports to require testing. NASCAR requires two negatives tests over a period of more than 24 hours to return if someone has tested positive. Anyone who has had a close contact can return immediately after a negative test.
"I travel by myself," said Kevin Harvick, whose seven Cup wins leads the series. "I drive in the rental car by myself. I go to the motorhome by myself. I get back in the rental car and I go home. We don’t go to the grocery store. We don’t go to any social events anywhere.
"My son doesn’t go to school. He’s now homeschooled, so there’s really nothing that this whole situation hasn’t changed in our family’s life in order to try to create the safest environment that we can possibly create in our own little bubble."
Both Harvick and Denny Hamlin are having championship-caliber seasons, having combined to win 13 of the 26 races this year.
"You don’t want to go anywhere new I would say," Hamlin said. "I think that we’ve got a good process.
"I monitor kind of my health and what not through some stuff that I have. I’m not really too concerned about it, but obviously anything can happen so you never know."
There certainly is some feeling of that there is nothing a driver can do to totally prevent it, much like a possible injury that could happen when working out.
"I’m going to certainly try to think about some of that stuff some more and try to be as smart as possible and hope for the best," Chase Elliott said.
The definition of "smart as possible" might have come from Clint Bowyer.
"I’m probably not going to go to a college and hit up a keg stand," said Clint Bowyer. "I’m probably not going to do that.
"I would say that would be a good opportunity to find yourself pointless."
