Q&A: George Pyne

Even though we've only raced six times this season, the 2004 NASCAR Winston Cup schedule is never far away from anyone's mind. NASCAR held a press conference in January, and one of the announcements was that the sanctioning body would realign the schedule for 2004 and beyond.

Bill France Jr., who wasn't part of the press conference, stood up and specifically mentioned tracks like North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, N.C., and Darlington (S.C.) Raceway as ones who could lose a Winston Cup date. Speculation has run rampant since, as those two tracks and others are scrambling to protect their two dates, while some other tracks like Kansas Speedway and California Speedway are bidding to get a second date.

	George Pyne

NASCAR has remained relatively quiet since then. Meanwhile, Rockingham and Darlington, the same two tracks supposed to be on the hot seat, hosted the two best races of the 2003 season. And drivers came to the two tracks' aid, saying they are among the best on which to race. So maybe the widespread movement of dates and tracks won't happen.

And then earlier this month, war broke out in Iraq. While the effects thus far have been minimal, a long war could change things.

Clearly, NASCAR has a lot on its plate. Last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, NASCAR chief operating officer George Pyne sat down with reporters to talk about things -- mostly the 2004 schedule.

Q: Do you think if it was up to the younger generation, the p---ing contest between Bill (France) and Bruton (Smith) would be over by now?

Pyne: "Bill and Bruton have a lot more in common that they do not in common. Let's look at it this way: I'm sure there are a lot of Coca-Cola bottlers or Ford dealers or McDonald's franchisees who disagree with what the manufacturer of the product does. The distributor and the manufacturer are going to disagree. I don't think it's the first time. If you look at a Ford dealer vs. Ford Motor Company or Coke vs. a Coke bottler, they probably agree on a lot more things that they disagree on, but there are going to be respectful disagreements."

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Q: Is this there a worst-case scenario in this, with regard to a million-dollar standpoint?

"We're very confident in our position. I will tell you that we feel very comfortable with where we are. I would also like to take the opportunity to remind you that if you look at the sport 10 years ago, and you look at the sport today, it's hard to say that the sport isn't a lot better off. More fans are watching on TV, more people are attending than every before, tracks have had record profits -- including (Speedway Motorsports Inc., Smith's company of tracks). How many quarters of record profits have they had? We feel very comfortable with our performance over the last several years."

Q: If ISC owned Texas Motor Speedway, do you think you'd have two races there?

"I can't answer hypothetically."

Q: That's the question that race fans ask. If ISC owned Texas, it would have two races, and if SMI owned Watkins Glen, it would have one.

"I'd answer that this way. If you look at the acquisition price that different track operators have had to make to buy different tracks, the ownership structure of NASCAR and those tracks have had no correlation. For example, when Richmond or Las Vegas was purchased, I don't think ownership had any factor in acquisition. The schedule that exists today is a result of the marketplace. That's probably benefited everybody.

Q: You say that in light of the fact that the chairman got up in a press conference in January and said that certain races you own shouldn't be where they are.

"NASCAR doesn't own any tracks."

Q: Are you connected to ISC at all, other than maybe a few shares of stock?

"I'm not even a stockholder."

Q: Are we going to see more night races?

	Darlington Raceway was host to two exciting finishes two weeks ago. Credit: Autostock

"If you look back historically, you don't see dramatic changes in the schedule at any one time. The reason for that is we're testing if they work, if they don't work. The Budweiser Shootout had a 25 percent ratings boost. That was good for the Bud Shootout. Where the world is right now, Fox is very happy with the schedule. I don't see the first half of the schedule having dramatic shifts, even in the long term, of day vs. night. Day vs. night is going to be determined by exposing NASCAR to the most amount of fans as possible. The idea to move to might is that more people can watch it. Where the evaluation is coming in is in the second half of the schedule and whether that makes sense to have more races at night."

Q: Does going against the NFL play a role?

"We're researching it. Are there more people at home Saturday night than there are Sunday? If there are, we'll take a look at Saturday night. That's something we're evaluating. We haven't made any decisions one way or the other. But if there are more night races added, it would be in the second half. We're adding Lowe's Motor Speedway as a night race this year. The challenge is if you've got a Saturday night race, what do you do with the Busch race Friday? Do fans have enough time to come to the race track on Friday? Can promoters sell tickets on Friday or not? Maybe it makes sense. Those things you've got to weigh and haven't been decided. What we do know is Bristol has a night race, and it works real well. We'll see how it works at Lowe's."

Q: How closely has NASCAR worked with Fox and NBC in getting the schedule ready?

"We work a little more closely now than before. The TV guys have made a request to look at it, and we're looking at it. We haven't made any decisions. I don't see any dramatic change, just a little bit. We're kind of like the groundhog on Groundhog's Day. We'll go up and look around. If we get stepped on, we'll go back in the hole. If the sun shines, we'll keep going a little bit. That's quite frankly, if you look at the way Bill and Mike have done things, how we've always done things."

Q: So most of the realignment could be in the second half of the season?

"Realignment is not just the location of the race. It's also the start times of the race. Let me give you an example of a win-win. I haven't talked to Chris Powell of this, so let me caveat and send him a dozen roses. If you look at Las Vegas, it started at 11:30 Pacific time, which is 2:30 Eastern. If you switched it to 1:30, would it make a difference to the people coming to the race? Probably not. Now, if you moved it from 2:30 to 4:40 (ET), it would probably be a lot better. What's the difference? There are a million to two million more people watching the race, which is better for the sponsors, better for the drivers selling T-shirts and hats.

"There are adjustments like that that can also be done that are a part of what Bill said in January that would be a part of realignment. That's a win-win. Not a win-win is if a Friday night presented a problem. That's going to be driven by fans. If the fans decide they're not going to go, we're not going to have less of a crowd for that reason. It'll be a give-and-take, and it'll be a little bit at a time. Remember, we've never made dramatic changes before."

Q: Never?

"Well, we've made a lot of changes. If you go back to 1970, I was 7 years old, but we had 60 races and we ran on dirt tracks. We've made a lot of changes, but it's been a little bit at a time."

Q: When will realignment be done?

"The schedule comes out, typically, anytime between August and the first week in September. That will stand on a timetable."

Q: What are the chances of having mid-week races?

"We look at all the other sports, football, baseball and basketball, we're kind of the new kid on the block. We want to kind of learn form them. One of the things you want to stay away from is a dilution of product or an oversaturation of product. The idea of a split racing league or mid-week races, we're really starting to play with the formula for success. One of the things that football has been fortunate with is, football is a 16-game season. It's hard for them to over saturate their product. We have a limited number of our product. I think that's a positive, and a good strength. If you try and dramatically change that, it could make it a lot worse than what it is. People come to see Jeff Gordon race Tony Stewart."

Q: How would war affect NASCAR if it went on for another couple of weeks?

"It's hard to predict that because it's such an unpredictable situation."

Q: With the races at Rockingham and Darlington as good as they were and all the interest that was generated, one argument is that a more competitive race produces more viewers, even if those races are in a smaller market.

"You have to take all those things into consideration. I don't think there's any one single variable. You have to weigh them all and try to make the best decision as possible. There are a lot of positive attributes of Darlington and Rockingham. They played a big part in the success of NASCAR. That will certainly be taken into consideration.

Q: Did that race save those dates?

"I have to be consistent. It's premature to speculate on what's going to happen. You've got to take everything into consideration. Darlington's a great facility in the history of NASCAR. A lot of great races there."

Q: Would it surprise you that more than one or two races change, as far as location goes.

"Again, it's too early to rule anything out. But I think at this point, if you look back historically, NASCAR has not ever made dramatic changes to the schedule. We've gone in increments. While we are going to be looking to realign the schedule, Bill France said this was in 2004 and beyond. If you go back 10 years, our schedule looks a lot different. We made a lot of changes in the last 10 years, but they were all gradual. There was never one year when you looked up, and the whole world looked dramatically different. That's the way it's going to be."

Q: Have you heard much from Kentucky? Have they talked about if they do align with someone else, what their chances were? Are they anywhere in the mix?

"I know Kentucky has done a great job with the trucks and the Busch Series. There are a lot of tracks out there that are interested in Winston Cup races."

Q: Has ISC or anyone come to you and said that they are close to making deal with them?

"I'm not aware of one of that nature."