Fans, start your engines! Texas Motor Speedway will host the first major league sports event in Texas that will be open to fans, since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, when NASCAR runs its rescheduled Cup race there July 19.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has approved a comprehensive action plan to allow fans for the race. The track said the grandstands and suites would be open to fans, who would be subject to social distancing requirements and additional protocols.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many tickets would be available for the race at the 1½-mile track that was originally scheduled for March 29. There are more than 110,000 grandstand seats.
Abbott had previously said that outdoor sporting events with spectators in Texas could be conducted at 50% capacity.
The announcement Friday comes as Texas continues to set record highs in the numbers of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations since Memorial Day. On Thursday, the state set a one-day high with 3,516 new cases of COVID-19 and 2,947 hospitalizations, which nearly doubled the number in hospitals over the holiday weekend.