Darlington, S.C.
Whenever Joey Logano doesn't cross the finish line first at a NASCAR Cup Series race, he says he tends to have the same thought: "Golly, I wish I could do that again."
The 2018 NASCAR champion and the rest of the field will get to do it again: They will run the Toyota 500 (that's kilometers, not miles) on Wednesday night at Darlington Raceway just three days after the sport got back to racing after 10 weeks away due to the coronavirus pandemic.
While each season typically sees a Monday race due to bad weather, the pandemic has forced NASCAR to add a couple of weeknights into its schedule as it tries to make up the eight races it missed.
This will be NASCAR's first Cup Series race on a Wednesday night in 36 years — and that one was pretty historic as Richard Petty won his 200th career Cup race at Daytona International Speedway's Firecracker 400 on July 4, 1984.
Cup regulars will race at least five times over the next two weeks, including Sunday's return to racing at Darlington. Kevin Harvick led the most laps on the way to his 50th career victory. Like that one, Wednesday's race will be without fans and with only essential personnel inside.
"I barely saw anyone all day" after getting into the car," Logano said.
Chase Elliott, who finished fourth Sunday, liked not having any practices to test things out and just going racing.
"Hopefully, we can kind of make this a trend and get back to our roots," he said.
For now, NASCAR's best will manage without fans, families and perhaps even complete staffs they'd been used to before the pandemic.
Xfinity: Xfinity Series drivers must wait two more days for their first race since the coronavirus pandemic shut down racing. Heavy rain washed out their scheduled return at Darlington Raceway on Tuesday night. Officials called the race about two hours after the scheduled 6 p.m. start. The event is now set for Thursday at noon. The track was dry and fast until the rains hit about 4 p.m. The storms increased and lessened several times during that stretch and NASCAR had Air Titans out at least three times when it looked like things might clear, but it was too wet to continue what is one of the busiest weeks in Darlington history. It started Sunday with the NASCAR Cup Series return to racing and will continue when those racers are back on the track for a rare midweek event Wednesday night. Thursday's Xfinity race will be the first in the series since March 7 at Phoenix. All drivers, teams and essential personnel were screened at the track before being let in. All cars passed pre-race inspection. Now, they'll have hope for better weather.
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