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South Boston Speedway will not award track championships for first time

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The NASCAR America crew look ahead to the Cup Series race at New Hampshire and dissect a disappointing season for Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson.

South Boston Speedway announced this week that no track championships will be awarded this season because of the lack of remaining race weekends in the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It marks the first time in the track’s 63-year history that no track championships will be awarded. The track, which hosted Cup races intermittently from 1960-71 and Xfinity races from 1982-91 and 1994-2000, is an example of the challenges short tracks throughout the country face during the pandemic with limits on mass gatherings.

“We still remain optimistic that we will be able to host some races in 2020 if the COVID-19 restrictions are loosened,” said South Boston Speedway CEO Nick Igdalsky in a statement. “If we do have an opportunity to race up to December, we will!”

South Boston is a NASCAR-sanctioned track.

Virginia has been in Phase 3 of its reopening since July 1. That phase restricts the total number of attendees, which includes participants and spectators, to the lesser of 50% of venue capacity or 1,000 people.

“We are not able to hold any racing events with the current state limitation of 1,000 total people including both participants and patrons without making huge compromises to put on the event,” Igdalsky said in a statement.

“It is our passion to provide exciting and affordable family entertainment for all of our loyal fans in South Boston, Halifax County and surrounding communities. But, we will only do so when we don’t need to charge our fans two times what they usually pay, reduce the number of races each night, cut competitors’ purses, or cut any corners that would jeopardize the safety and conveniences of our competitors and fans.

“We acknowledge that some Virginia tracks have opened, and we are very proud of their efforts and hope our regular competitors support the tracks that are able to make it work right now.”