CONCORD, N.C. — NASCAR’s plan to return to racing — albeit without fans — amid the COVID-19 pandemic beginning on May 17 at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway didn’t come together overnight.

According to NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell, series officials went through 65 different versions of the NASCAR national division schedules before settling on what was announced on Thursday.

“As we developed the return to racing schedule we understood, and I’ve seen this many times from the media, that it’s going to be a fluid situation and we were going to need to factor in many, many variables,” O’Donnell said during a media teleconference Thursday afternoon. “Most important for us at the onset was the development of a plan that was discussed with public health officials, medical experts, state and local officials.

“Then it was important for us to work with all of our stakeholders and that included the teams, the tracks, OEMs, engine builders, our suppliers, TV partners, all of those folks had to weigh in and talk about what was possible in this environment.”

What was eventually settled on was a tight schedule of events in May without fans that will take place at two tracks — Darlington and Charlotte Motor Speedway — that are within close proximity of North Carolina’s Cabarrus County, where most of the teams are based.

“Our goal was also as we put this together to keep as many races as possible intact toward the middle of the back half of the season,” O’Donnell explained. “So that’s why you’re seeing some of the events take place as early as we can and as close in proximity to each race as we can.”

As a result, Darlington Raceway will go from hosting one Cup Series event this year to three and Charlotte Motor Speedway will go from hosting two Cup Series races to three.

Darlington’s new events will take place on May 17 and May 20 in addition to the previously scheduled Southern 500 on Sept. 6. Charlotte Motor Speedway will move forward as planned with the Coca-Cola 600 on May 24 while also adding a new race on May 27 in addition to the event on the ROVAL that is slated for Oct. 11.

Because of the new races at Darlington and Charlotte, NASCAR will be forced to re-align it schedule and some other tracks on the schedule will lose races as a result. O’Donnell said which tracks will lose races have been decided, but will be announced at a later date.

From a safety aspect, NASCAR will be instituting a number of safety precautions to help limit social contact throughout each event according to John Bobo, NASCAR Vice President Racing Operations.

Each race car will be limited to 16 crew members — including drivers, crew chiefs and pit crew members. NASCAR has asked race teams to monitor all participants for symptoms for five days prior to arrival at each venue and they’ll all be asked to fill out a questionnaire, go through through screenings and have their temperatures taken.

“After that they go into a secondary screening with medical personnel and we’ll include heart rate and pulse oxygenation and medical personnel will make any decisions at that point,” Bobo said. “We’ll also then go through additional screening for essential personnel. We’ve been working with the teams and our roster system to make sure that the event is very limited in who can attend. We’re making sure that if there’s any operations that we can move off site, that’s exactly what we’re trying to do to limit the event.”

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