NASCAR's Brickyard 400 to Run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Without Fans

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway will stage NASCAR's annual Brickyard 400 on July 5 without fans, the track announced Thursday.

The speedway noted Indiana is planning to allow for large public sporting events with social distancing beginning July 4. Indianapolis will have to wait another 10 days for fans, however, because Marion County isn't on the same timeline as other counties in the state.

"While we certainly worked diligently to run our events with spectators, we reached a point where we needed to make a final decision because the race weekend is less than a month away," Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said. "Today it's not possible to be confident that Indianapolis will be at Stage 5 of the state's reopening plan by the Fourth of July weekend."

In recent weeks, states have begun relaxing stay-at-home guidelines and allowed for the reopening of certain businesses on a limited basis. Still, major public gatherings, such as sporting events, remain off the table. And when fans are allowed to return, venues will unlikely be filled to capacity.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb rolled out a five-stage plan in May to gradually have the state bring things back to normal. Miles said at the time Indianapolis Motor Speedway would entertain the possibility of having fans for the Brickyard 400 but that it would also plan for alternatives.

Much like every other major sports league around the world, NASCAR suspended its 2020 season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Racing resumed May 17 with The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway, and NASCAR ran four more events over the rest of the month. All five have happened behind closed doors to limit the spread of COVID-19.

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Bleacher Report's David Gardner interviews athletes and other sports figures for the podcast How to Survive Without Sports.