Michigan International Speedway to host NASCAR doubleheader Aug. 8-9

NASCAR announced on Wednesday that Michigan International Speedway would be hosting a weekend doubleheader next month with the FireKeepers Casino 400 kicking off the twinbill on the two-mile superspeedway Aug. 8, followed by the Consumers Energy 400 the following day.

In fact, four races will be held during the three-day weekend — all televised nationally — with the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race held on Aug. 7 and the ARCA Menards Series VizCom 200 on Aug. 9. There will be no Xfinity race at MIS.

All four races will be held without fans. The FireKeepers Casino 400 originally was postponed in June.

“The return of NASCAR racing at Michigan International Speedway is an important step in the reemergence of professional sports to our state,” MIS President Rick Brenner said in a statement.

“The opportunity to host four races over the course of one weekend, including a pair of Cup events on successive days, is something that we look forward to and that we feel a tremendous amount of responsibility. We appreciate the patience and support from all of our fans, and we look forward to seeing them back in 2021.”

It will be the second doubleheader in NASCAR Cup history, coming just weeks after the first doubleheader at Pocono June 27-28 with Kevin Harvick winning the first race, then finishing second to Denny Hamlin in the second race. No fans were allowed in that doubleheader, either.

“We’d obviously wish that our phenomenal fans could be a part of this," Brenner told The Detroit News, "but we certainly understand the current environment doesn’t allow for that. We do appreciate all the patience our fans have shown and all of their support during this challenging time.

“The company NASCAR has taken a very measured and methodical approach in our return to racing, not just Michigan but everywhere and we’ve learned a lot over the time and implemented the safety protocols for everyone who enters the venues on the teams side and at this time working with state, local, regional and national health officials the best determinations for everyone involved was to run the races without our fans. As much as we’d love to have them here, we do appreciate their understanding during these challenging times.”

The series was forced to take a 10-week break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, shutting down its race on March 15, the week after Joey Logano won at Phoenix.

NASCAR was the first major sport to come back to business on May 17 at Darlington and the series held multiple Sunday/Wednesday events at the same track before the first doubleheader at Pocono.

In the 12 races since the series resumed racing, Harvick has reached Victory Lane four times, including last Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Hamlin has won three races.

Harvick owns an 85-point lead over Chase Elliott with Rochester Hills native Brad Keselowski sitting third in points, 88 behind Harvick, followed by Ryan Blaney (minus-103) and Hamlin, 109 behind the points leader.

Seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson missed last week’s race at the Brickyard after self-reporting a positive COVID-19 test last Friday. NASCAR officials on Wednesday cleared him to return to competition for Sunday’s race at Kentucky Speedway.

david.goricki@detroitnews.com