Sports

Driving For Dollars In The Pandemic

New documents and emails give an inside look at how Tennessee brought more than twenty thousand NASCAR fans together during a pandemic.

Driving For Dollars In The Pandemic
Josh Miller
SMS

This July, Tennessee hosted the NASCAR All-Star Race. And, despite the pandemic, the state welcomed more than twenty thousand spectators. It was, at the time, the largest known gathering in America since the COVID-19 outbreak took root.

New documents and emails uncovered by Newsy reveal the clearest picture yet of how Tennessee brought fans back to large sporting events in the U.S. — and raise questions about whether the promised economic benefits were prioritized over health risks.

A full text version of this story is available with our partners at HuffPost.  Our partners at WTVF-TV in Nashville contributed to the reporting on the use of tax dollars to support the pandemic gathering.