Thankfully, these are some of the things that work to NASCAR’s advantage in helping it become one of the first sports back up and running. Also consider that unlike other professional sports where person-to-person contact is involved, NASCAR’s stars are inside race cars and will only be running into sheet metal instead of someone else’s flesh.

It has become critical that NASCAR reopens in some form or fashion for the health of all its competitors. By reopening, NASCAR and its teams will begin to generate some much-needed income. With each passing day, things have gotten tougher for organizations and their employees, resulting in folks either being laid off, furloughed, or given pay cuts, while bonuses have gone away.

“We’re not racing, so we’re not getting charter money, we’re not getting TV money, we’re not getting ancillary money,” Mason St. Hilaire of Go Fas Racing told RACER last month.

Even if fans aren’t the stands, just by going back racing, money can begin to flow through the massive TV deal NASCAR has with Fox Sports and NBC Sports. Teams get a percentage of that deal: the Associated Press reported recently that it’s 25 percent.

NASCAR stands apart from other racing series in that regard. RACER’s Robin Miller recently explained how in IndyCar, viability for the tracks comes from the gate revenue, title sponsorship and other entities because, unlike NASCAR, they do not have television money.

So even without fans in the stands, NASCAR still has a reason to run races as soon as it can. Plus, sponsors will begin paying again, since their companies are back on track. Then there is the charter money for teams, which is the guaranteed revenue for race results.

Races will look different and feel different for months to come, but NASCAR is in a much better position than other motorsports to put on a race. Recent movement appears to suggest that NASCAR might have gotten closer to deciding where it can race, and now is finalizing how to go about doing so.