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AKRON—The Daytona 500 was last held 11 months ago. Given what has happened since, it feels like 11 years ago.
When Denny Hamlin crossed the finish line in first place at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 17, 2020—a rain-soaked race that actually began a day earlier before getting postponed on lap 20—no one in NASCAR had any idea what was to come.
"There was really no inkling that anything was going to change," said Greg Stucker, director of racing for Goodyear.
"It's hard to remember exactly what the world was like back then. Everyone was starting to get the news (about COVID-19) and some sort of indication that other parts of the world were beginning to have trouble, and we were starting to see it here.