Dale Jr., Gordon: Meetings have been productive, a real highlight
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR officials and members of the drivers’ council met here Saturday at Daytona International Speedway, the second such meeting between the two since the council was formed earlier this year.
“The meetings that we have had with them have been really good, real productive,” driver and council member Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Saturday evening. “They talked about the direction they wanted to go. We talked a little bit about tires, a little bit about the changes they’re going to make, what they (want) to do with this low downforce package in the future and what they’re wanting to do at some other race tracks as well. …
“NASCAR has to meet with everybody so often; we just kind of get in there and get the information that they’re getting from Goodyear in the meetings they have with them; they’re meeting with the owners often … they’re busy folks and have a lot going on. We’re trying to make some good changes. I’m looking forward to seeing how this works. Whether it works or not isn’t really the question. I think that opportunity to even try it’s pretty cool.”
NASCAR announced last month pending changes for next weekend’s Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway. Among the changes are a reduction in spoiler height from 6 inches to 3 1/2 inches and a decrease in the size of the splitter extension panel (radiator pan) from 38 inches to 25 inches. In addition, the front splitter will have 1 3/4 inches less overhang.
In addition to competition issues, other topics discussed included safety and marketing, according to Brett Jewkes, Vice President, Chief Communications Officer for NASCAR.
“I can tell you the agenda forever is going to be competition, safety, marketing and other current issues,” Jewkes told Sirius XM NASCAR.
But, Jewkes noted, conversations with the drivers’ council is just one part of the ongoing dialog the sanction body continues to have with all of its partners.
“We obviously are speaking daily with our manufacturer partners at Chevrolet, Toyota and Ford,” Jewkes said. “Certainly working with the team engineers and competition directors and have a lot of direct dialogue with the team owners. Our network partners and the race tracks are also having a voice.
“So it’s a little bit interesting sometimes to us that there’s so much attention on the driver council and a big curiosity about what happens in those meetings. We’re having meetings and discussions all the time, and the one thing that the fans need to know is that never … I’ve been working in this sport for 16 years and with NASCAR for five now, and I’ve never seen this level of collaboration and just really unified desire to create the best product we can for the race fan. That is a prevailing thing in every one of these councils, in every one of our meetings.”
Officials met with the council for the first time earlier this year at Dover, Delaware.
Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon said the council, which was selected by drivers “have a responsibility to the field that’s out there to try to … contribute to the sport being the best that it can be.
“In all the year’s I’ve been in the sport,” Gordon said, “these two meetings that we’ve had have been some of the highlights of my career. I think it’s huge. To open the lines of communication in this sense where … every manufacturer (is) represented, you have a lot of different teams represented.
“Basically when you get in that room you realize that everybody’s goal is to try to do whatever we can to continue to make this sport as great as it has been and possibly even better, and the racing the best that we can possibly get.”