France: Chase gave drivers moments to shine

On SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, France recounted a story from Champion's Week that he first told at the NMPA Myers Brothers Luncheon last Thursday.

"When I saw Kevin in Las Vegas on Tuesday, he pulled me aside, and it was neat," France remembered. "He said, 'Look, I wasn't a big fan of the Chase format when you first announced it, and you first told me about it. But I've got to tell you, when we got into it and the moments, it gave me and my team (a chance) to reach down and dig up talent and effort that we never thought possible, that was pretty neat to be able to have those moments.'

"Wow, that's everything! That's what our fans love most. These are the best drivers in the world, best teams in the world. Give them moments where they can shine and they will."

France reiterated that a winless champion taking the Chase title would have been fine because all of the drivers and teams in the Chase raised "their game to a new level."

"It wouldn't have bothered us at all if Ryan Newman would have closed the deal -- and he almost did by the way -- and won," France said. "He would have earned the championship in our view without question.

"Because any time you try to go back in auto racing and say, 'Well, it's whoever won the most races. Well, it's whoever had the best finishing order' or any of that stuff, you never get the real accurate view. The real accurate view is did you bring it when it mattered? Were you the best on that given day? That's how every other sport is measured."

According to France, any changes to the format would be "nothing anybody would notice for '15, but if we can make an already great thing better, we will always look into that.

"… We're very content that we have the right positioning of elevating the drivers to have moments as I just described and then also balancing this whole thing in auto racing which is very difficult to balance. Which is, how do you balance winning and consistency? They don't necessarily always go together. And how do you have any kind of a championship run that represents that? We've done the best job that we think we can do to balance that."

The competitive fire that burned during the Chase will stoke the sport's fire until 2015 Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway.

"Momentum out of any sport at the end of the year, a dramatic playoffs, a really interesting ending is always something you build on," France said. "… The level of competition actually went up. If you were at or watching any of the last 10 races frankly, but certainly the last few, it was unmistakable the effort, the level of competition with the elite teams."

The NASCAR Chairman and CEO said the sport plans to take advantage of that momentum in the 74 days leading up to the Great American Race.

"We're always trying to keep our drivers engaged with our fans as best we can, and they want that," France said. "They thrive on that too, so it's not a very hard sell at all. So we'll be working on things that give the Daytona 500 its rightful energy into the New Year with our drivers and teams."

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