Jimmie Johnson’s Future Teammate and 6-time IndyCar Champion Praises NASCAR for its Efficiency

Six-time IndyCar champion and Jimmie Johnson’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate in 2021, Scott Dixon, recently opened up on a variety of subjects. Among them, he spoke about how fellow American racing series, NASCAR, handled itself during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the virus struck earlier this year, nearly everything came to a halt.

Later on, some public events resumed tentatively, including major sports. For its part, NASCAR was not taking any chances since the United States was one of the worst-affected nations. However, Dixon admitted that NASCAR has come up with ways to effectively compromise in emergency situations.

He said, “I think the problem was, right, nobody had been through something like this. Sometimes in some situations, there was no right or wrong answer. I think we got here in March, everybody was here in the pits, everybody had done their prep. You should just run the race, no big deal. Then you see the severity of it.”

Scott Dixon believes that NASCAR helped IndyCar combat the virus

According to him, the COVID-19 situation forced everybody to rethink their protocols. In fact, he attributed IndyCar’s success in battling the virus to NASCAR. The stock car racing series paved the way for properly laying out the protocols and structuring everything.

“I think the protocols is what really changed I think the formula for the year. We have a lot of thanks I think for NASCAR. They really paved the way,” Dixon said.

This included the manner in which the COVID-19 tests were conducted, the social distancing of pit crews and drivers, and travel protocols. Obviously, the sport put in a lot of effort, but many people underestimated it. Even when some drivers like Jimmie Johnson and Austin Dillon tested positive, the sport took care of the situations effectively.

Obviously, they worked in tandem with local authorities to follow the norms, especially when there were spectators. Additionally, NASCAR eliminated practice and qualifying in order to reduce the prospect of prolonged exposure.

Miraculously, everyone largely escaped the worst of the pandemic with NASCAR’s strict guidance. Now, IndyCar has taken a page out of their books and tried to keep their sport as sanitary as possible.