France hopeful fans can move past all the change

CONCORD, N.C. -- In its 60th season, NASCAR is going to "get back to basics," according to NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France, with an eye toward moving the focus of its core fan away from the off-the-track changes and toward the on-track action.

That's the theory, anyway.

'08 Changes

How teams outside the top 35 in owner points qualify on a weekly basis is just one of the rule changes set by NASCAR beginning in the 2008 season.

• 2008 Competition changes
• France: State of the sport
• Caraviello: No change at last

"Change has been a hot button with the media and [NASCAR]," France said near the beginning of his remarks Monday afternoon at the NASCAR R&D Center. "Just so you know how we feel about it, while there's been a lot of change, most of it for the good, the Chase, all the things, there were a lot of changes that were made, had to be made, that were scheduled many, many years ago, like the Car of Tomorrow, which had an eight- or nine-year development cycle, or some changes that were frankly out of our control, the series entitlement sponsors coming or going or whatever.

"I think what I hope you'll take out of today is we're getting back to the basics, we're going to try to minimize the change going forward as best we can and focus on what we've always focused on, which is the best product in the world."

While NASCAR has experienced a decade's worth of solid growth, the rate has declined in the past few seasons, which has led to much discussion of television ratings, the TV package itself and the role that core fans -- the ones that have been in place for many years -- will play in the future of the sport.

Much of the change France mentioned in his prepared remarks has been, quite honestly, beyond NASCAR's control. The sponsorship change from Winston to Nextel and now to Sprint was not NASCAR's idea, nor was the shift from Busch, the only sponsor NASCAR's second-tier series has ever had, to Nationwide Insurance this year.

However, many initiatives designed to broaden the appeal of NASCAR, both from a business and consumer standpoint, have resulted in at least a perceived alienation of the core NASCAR fan, and France reacted strongly to it.

"Our initiatives, you saw our diversity initiative, which is very important to expanding our fan base, we're doing more not less in those areas," France said. "We always need to reach out and be as aggressive as we can.

"What I'm saying to you is this change issue, all the different things from the name of the series to the format, different rules, the Car of Tomorrow, now the new car, whatever, all those things to our core fan, that's a lot to digest in a very short period of time. We know that. A lot of those things were on a track from many years ago. Some of those things were out of our control. It doesn't matter. They all happen. That's not helpful. Change is good to a certain point. We've got all the change we think the sport can stand and needs. Now we want to build on that."

In essence, France is saying NASCAR's focus will be on retaining the long-time fan that has seen the fabric of the sport weaved into something far different than it was in the past. (Continued)