There were no spectators in the stands in South Carolina as Kevin Harvick won the Darlington 400 [renamed the Real Heroes 400 for this race].
Jimmie Johnson crashed himself out of the race and Harvick took advantage to take the first win of the truncated 2020 NASCAR season.
The Darlington 400 – renamed the Real Heroes 400 – was the first live NASCAR event since the coronavirus pandemic shut all live sporting events down in the USA in mid-March.
The “Heroes” race aired with no fans in the stands — in keeping with COVID-19 promised restrictions of live sports leagues/programmers for the return of sports to TV.
“The Real Heroes 400” race from Darlington Raceway drew 6.32 million preliminary Nielsen-measured viewers, making it the most-watched non-Daytona 500 race in three years. Earlier this year, the biggest race of the NASCAR season — the Daytona 500 — pulled in 7.3 million viewers on Feb. 16 in a rain-delayed race [down from 9.2 million viewers the year before].
