NASCAR said some fans can attend two upcoming races. NASCAR will allow up to 1,000 Florida service members, representing the Homestead Air Reserve Base and US Southern Command in Doral, to attend the Cup Series race Sunday as honorary guests and view the race from the grandstands. Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama will allow up to 5,000 guests in the front stretch grandstands/towers for the June 21 Cup race.

NASCAR has banned the Confederate flag from its races and properties. NASCAR says Wednesday the Confederate flag “runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry.”

Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s lone black driver, called this week for the banishment of the Confederate flag and said there was “no place” for them in the sport. Wallace asked the stock car series with deep ties to the South to formally distance itself from what for millions is a symbol of slavery and racism. At long last, NASCAR obliged.

Former chairman Brian France in 2015 tried to ban the flying of Confederate flags at race tracks, a proposal too broad to enforce and one that angered NASCAR’s core Southern-based fan base.

The move was announced before Wednesday night’s race at Martinsville Speedway. Wallace was set to drive a Chevrolet with a #BlackLivesMatter paint scheme.

AMC Entertainment lost nearly $2.2 billion in its first quarter as it struggled with the closure of all of its movie theatres amid the virus outbreak. The company recorded an impairment charge of about $1.85 billion. AMC said Wednesday that it expects to have all of its theatres worldwide open in July. It has 10 theatres reopened in Europe.

With stores closed, GameStop’s fiscal first-quarter sales declined 34% but its online sales skyrocketed 519% globally as customers continued to seek out video games. In March the retailer temporarily closed all 3,526 of its US locations – with about 65% of these locations offering limited curbside pickup.

GameStop said it had about 85% of its US locations open at the end of last month, with limited customer access or curbside delivery. About 90% of its international locations opened in May. However, the video game retailer said it has since had to temporarily close about 100 US stores due to nationwide protests. It anticipates keeping about 35 of those locations closed for the foreseeable future given extensive damage.

Spanish fast-fashion retailer Inditex, owner of chains like Zara and Massimo Dutti, said first-quarter sales plunged 44% as up to 88% of its stores worldwide were shut because of the pandemic. However, online sales were up 50% in during the quarter and surged 95% in April alone. The company, which operates in 96 markets worldwide, plans to spend €1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to boost online sales to more than a quarter of its total revenue by 2022 from just 14% in fiscal 2019. The retailer also plans to pare back its fleet of 7,412 stores to between 6,700 and 6,900 by shutting up to 1,200 smaller, older stores and opening 450 larger locations that use less energy and recycle all materials.

General Motors is predicting that its US factories will resume normal production by the end of June, perhaps sooner, while Ford expects to have its factories humming at pre-coronavirus levels by July 6. GM Chief Financial Officer Dhivya Suryadevara said many factories were on two or three shifts of production already, and the company is working to fully ramp back up as quickly as possible.

Ford, GM and the rest of the US auto industry closed factories in mid-March when employees started catching the coronavirus. Most reopened in May.