Brian France says NASCAR has quite a bit on its plate -- but things are going well. Credit: Autostock
By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
June 29, 2004
5:11 PM EDT (2111 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France forecast a severe penalty for Nextel Cup Series driver Tony Stewart on Tuesday in a national telephone media briefing.
France, who replaced his father, William C. France, as head of the family-run motorsports sanctioning body last fall, addressed Stewart's confrontation with fellow Cup driver Brian Vickers on Sunday at Infineon Raceway.
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He also talked about NASCAR's current rule situation, including racing back to yellow flags; green-white-checker finishes in the Nextel Cup Series; racing outside the United States; diversity; and virtually every other topic that has been on the NASCAR radar screen this season.
Q: What is your assessment of your first six, seven months on the job?
Brian France: Nice of you to ask, but it's not really about me. I've enjoyed the responsibilities and it's obviously action-packed. We have three of the four top national series in the country. We've got our hands full.
But working with the team we've got in developing new ideas and trying to make racing better has been a fun first year for me.
Q: What are your thoughts on the latest Tony Stewart incident, at Infineon Raceway on Sunday, and is this a big deal in your mind?
Brian France: It is a big deal. We're going to see how big it is here shortly. But his behavior at Sears Point (Infineon) is unacceptable. We will be dealing with that shortly.
Tony has to work within the same rule structure and behavioural expectations that we have for all of our drivers. And one way or the other, we will figure that out.
Q: Have you, or will you talk to Tony Stewart about his latest incident, and with regards to that, is this going to be your decision or something you're signing off with what NASCAR president Mike Helton's decided to do?
Brian France: Well, I'll sign off on anything that is substantial. Mike will, as he always does, make his recommendations and we'll do that as a group. We have talked to Tony and I'm sure we'll talk again with Tony. That's where we are.
Q: Do you have a more definite timetable for Tony Stewart's penalty?
Brian France: It will be before the Pepsi 400, that's for sure (laughing). Look, we'll do it as fast as we can. We are still reviewing a few details to make sure we understand exactly what occurred and then we'll be reacting as soon as we get that completed.
Q: Because this is something of a continuing pattern with Tony Stewart, is something harsher than a fine, probation or a point deduction being discussed?
Brian France: Well, Tony is not on probation now. And he is like any other driver and we are going to look at the circumstances open-mindedly.
But we are on record, and I'll say it today, that his behavior at Sears Point is not acceptable. And so just how severe the punishment needs to be to make a point that we are not going to accept that, and punish somebody for what they did, that's something we are going to have to work through.
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| France says scoring procedures have imporved greatly in the past two weeks. Credit: Autostock |
Q: With recent complaints about an overabundance of rules, or rule changes, and the recent procedural mistakes, is that considered the price of doing business and something that will work itself out in time?
Brian France: No, and I want to answer that because it's important.
The expectation from the drivers, the owners, fans and everybody in the industry is that NASCAR is going to conduct the events in a mistake-free environment. Now, we all know that that's not humanly possible -- although, that's our own expectation, that every event that we conduct is mistake-free.
We have had several mistakes in the last month that we think we've gotten for a large measure corrected. And we've obviously introduced a more complicated system in terms of freezing the field.
Although we've simplified that in the last two weeks, there will be a couple of other procedural things that we'll simplify here in the next week or two. And I think you see in the last two events, you see less yellow flags. We had nine different cautions in Michigan, (but) just 36 laps (of caution). We got moving in record time.
I think you saw this weekend that a road course is very difficult to officiate, (yet) how smooth we were and how quick we were. And we are going to get it simpler to understand and we are going to be as fast and accurate as we can. That's our goal.
Q: With the recent changes in the schedule and what seems to a lot of people to be abandoning tradition, and assuming the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup goes as well as we think it will, do you see a radical change in the 2006 schedule, something like three short tracks, two speedways, a road course and four intermediates in that last 10 races?
Brian France: Sounds like you have been spending a little time with a legal pad drawing up a few things. But, no, I don't see a dramatic change.
| ALSO | | Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers were involved in a post-race altercation Sunday at Infineon Raceway, but no one seems to know exactly why. |
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Although realignment is intended to be every year in terms of how we would look at what events are working (or) could work better in some places than do work in others, the traditional events are a huge thing for us.
Even though we have made changes and we may make changes in the future, it's not without thinking about traditional impact of places like Martinsville or Charlotte or wherever we are going to look. Traditional events that mean a lot to the NASCAR industry (are) always a balancing act that we have to take into consideration.
Q: There's been talk about going to green-white-checker finishes in the Nextel Cup Series. Rusty Wallace thinks it might not work, but where is NASCAR at in looking at races finishing under green and are we going to see a change on that in the near future?
Brian France: Well, we are studying that whole idea of how we might give ourselves more opportunities to finish under a green-flag scenario, which is what we want. If we find the right system, I know we have one that works in the Truck Series, but remember those are shorter races.
We are having to factor in a number of other things of where the Nextel Cup Series races on, how many tracks and really, the most important thing is how long the events are. But if we can figure out a better approach, I hope everybody knows us -- or knows me by now -- that we will implement it if we can and we are looking at it closely.
Q: How does the process of moving toward green-white-checker finishes in Nextel Cup play out?
Brian France: Well, we have a lot of smart people who have good views, and they don't always agree with me and I don't always agree with them. But in NASCAR we have always wanted to hear the opposing views, because you never know when somebody might make the right point.
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We are going through that process now as we are with three or four -- we always seem to have three or four things that we are looking at for next year (or) for this year. We are looking at our rules package, which we are going to have out three months earlier than we have ever had with more input than we have ever had, with our team owners and drivers.
NASCAR is an industry that you have to reach out and get all of the ideas. And if we can find one, as you know, we will make a decision if it promotes better racing or safety or anything that we think improves the industry.
Q: Why are beer and wine sponsorships acceptable and yet hard liquor isn't? Do the fans recognize the difference?
Brian France: Well, they may or may not. What's at issue here is a long-standing rule going back into the '70s of a cooperation that the network television partners would have when it comes to hard liquor and spirits.
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You know, a lot of our events -- 80 percent of them -- are on network television. That's a different challenge than other motorsports series have or other people might have.
So, we have to understand that we've got to be in step, and that's not to say that our television partners are for or against allowing spirits. That's one thing that we've got to understand as we go along.
Another is that hard liquor and cars have another element that you have to consider. And timing of such a thing, we're all going through now, the incident at the Super Bowl and other incidents where there's a real crackdown of what's, you know, broadcast on national television, how it's treated, how it's presented.
There's a lot we have to consider before we just throw out a 30-year policy. And that's what we did consider. We looked at all of the circumstances that we thought Roush could provide.
They did a nice job of laying out some things in the end. We think the timing is just not right now, and we're going to leave it at that and we'll review it down the road.
Q: How is the hard liquor situation different than tobacco was in years past. I know it wasn't too long ago that Jimmy Spencer had a car sponsored by Winston, so how is that different from hard liquor?
Brian France: Well, we had tobacco starting in the early 1970s before all of the restrictions and all of the things that eventually impacted the industry, the way it did in the 1990s (occurred). They were already a partner of ours -- unlike the spirits, where we have a policy where they are not in the sport. So that's the most important thing.
And then you had all of that loyalty built up in a time when they didn't have any restrictions and they were just a normal company doing business to where that changed in the midst of them being a partner within the sport.
So we had to look at that differently and we'd look at cigarettes coming into the sport out of the blue today differently. You have to look at all of the circumstances, but RJR was a great partner for a long time and you just can't dismiss that when restrictions swirl back and forth.
Q: What progress has there been on a track near New York City?
Brian France: Well, ISC (International Speedway Corporation) is going to make the announcement when they have something to announce, and I don't want to get out in front of anything that they are working on.
No one knows more than I how important it would be to obtain a track in the New York market. It's a tremendous -- obviously it's the No. 1 market. But with our TV viewership now, growing substantially, I think it's our third market in the mix behind only Atlanta and Los Angeles for NASCAR fans.
So we'd like to see a New York track get figured out.
Q: Do you see the so-called "car of the future" coming to fruition by 2006, or maybe even before the end of next season?
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Brian France: Mike Helton feels strongly about it, as does Gary Nelson and everybody who is working on it and they are doing good work.
They are on schedule, and one of the challenges they have -- (since) this will be a project where we have reached out like never before to the industry -- they have their input, their ideas, because we are all going to be living in this car for a long time.
So there's a lot of work being done now to sit down with every crew chief, team owner, some drivers -- and that's ongoing.
We are hoping to get that car on the racetrack sometime next year, and then we are going to be announcing a phase-in system, as we've obviously got a lot of equipment that we've got to deal with that needs to be cycled out.
So those are all timelines we are working on but the project is going great.
Q: What is your satisfaction level with the state of the Craftsman Truck Series?
Brian France: The Truck Series is having its best year in recent memory, and in part because Toyota has definitely energized the series. I think SPEED Channel is hitting their stride with producing and distributing and it looks great on television.
The fan support, now that everybody has figured out how exciting those events are at Daytona, Atlanta, Charlotte; and they were up in Mansfield, Ohio, and sold out and had to add seats. We're getting a call a month from a track that would like to host the series.
So, there's no doubt now that it's arrived and it's going to be with us for quite a long time. And the racing is great. We've got a nice mix of veterans and young stars. Kurt Busch and a couple of others have proven you can go right from there to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.
So it's a breeding ground for the NASCAR Nextel Cup, which is always helpful. We are really excited about the Truck Series.
Q: Jimmie Johnson today said the Chase for the Nextel Cup is more entertainment than sports. Is that a fine line to walk?
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| Jimmie Johnson Credit: Autostock |
Brian France: No, I don't think that we look at it that way -- we don't look at lines that cross over or not. We look at two things: That we have to be objective and (do we have) a fair, balanced playing field for the drivers. And whatever happens happens.
If we do the first job right, getting the drivers the opportunity to showcase their skills, and the more the better; they are going to make it exciting and that's entertaining. It's not either/or. The more exciting you make the racing, the more entertaining it becomes and there's no line.
We'd love to see every race as exciting as possible.
Q: Has the rules package that was put in place at the beginning of the season improved the racing?
Brian France: I think it has. It took a few weeks or four or five races to get all of the drivers comfortable at the same time, which was an issue -- which is always an issue when you make aerodynamic changes. But now that's passed.
One of our thoughts was not to want to further adjust down the spoiler, (but) we were going to maybe take a little bit of length off that. We are not going to do that now, as it turns out, because if you look at the manufacturers, they are all competing (and) there's no dispute that they are all in the hunt.
We think the racing in terms of the manufacturers and the competition is right where we would like it to be.
Q: Why did you not issue a harsher penalty to Nextel Cup driver Scott Wimmer for his DUI conviction?
Brian France: We took a look at the circumstances surrounding that infraction. It's true he had a citation (but) it was on the lower end in terms of the severity of the citation.
He also agreed to do a number of things from community service to other requirements that we felt were important, and we felt like his career took also quite a pummelling, as he will tell you.
When we added it all up, that was where we came out.
Q: What is the best long-term solution to executing the no racing back to the caution and freezing the field?
Brian France: Well, that's what we are working on now. There are all kinds of suggestions, and we are looking at how each one of them might work in a 500-mile or a 600-mile race, and that is a challenging proposition.
It's always been challenging. It wasn't that important before we froze the field as it is today; so it's getting more attention from us and from everyone else, and when we come up, if we come up with a right solution, we'll bring it forward.
Q: How much consideration is being given to scoring by the last completed green flag lap?
Brian France: We like what we have now. We know we are much more accurate going back to the last available (scoring) loop. It's completely accurate (and) it's more current.
If we should go back a full lap, to capture that (and make it) easy to understand, is (more) challenging (than) when we tried to have a system where we used all available means to be even more current.
We are plenty current and plenty accurate enough and very simple with the current system we have -- and you've seen that in the last two weeks and I think you'll see it continue to be simpler to understand and more accurate.
Q: What can you say about a proposed NASCAR Busch Series event in Mexico City?
Brian France: We have not formalized any plans yet and although there is a lot of discussion asked to take some form of NASCAR to Mexico City, and we are talking about that, but we don't have it finalized.
But whatever we do finalize will not be a one-and-out scenario -- it will be designed to have a number of years to get us traction to build awareness in the market.
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