Indiana's new shelter-in-place decree shuts down race teams

The state of Indiana has issued a new order that will go into effect on Wednesday requiring residents to stay at home through April 7.

Governor Eric Holcomb announced the plan Monday afternoon and, with only a limited number of essential businesses permitted to remain open during the order, the majority of the NTT IndyCar Series field will be affected, as will a handful of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams, NHRA teams, and a large number of short track racers.

Indiana’s decree follows an increasing number of shelter-at-home mandates, and more are expected to follow. California, New York, Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois are among the states to have enacted plans aimed at stemming the spread of the COVID-19 virus by ordering residents to stay in place.

Of the large, racing-related hubs for motor racing that continue to operate without statewide shutdowns, Florida, which houses a vast array of sports car teams, and the southern and mid-Atlantic states that house dozens of NASCAR teams, have only the Center for Disease Control’s guidelines of social distancing and crowd sizes of 10 or less to consider.

With the current ability for some teams to continue working and preparing for future races, while others are banned from completing the same work due to their state’s coronavirus shutdown, several series may look to issue work-stoppage orders of their own to keep unaffected teams from gaining a preparatory advantage.