After a 30-year career at General Motors, where he retired in 2010 as senior vice president of global Chevrolet, Dewar came to NASCAR a year ago as chief operating officer.

In the past 12 months, Dewar has gotten a first-hand look at the inner workings of a sanctioning body he once viewed from a markedly different perspective as the representative of an OEM.

"Five years ago, when I left General Motors, I met with Brian France, and he talked about his vision of where he wanted the sport to go," Dewar said Tuesday on the opening day of the NASCAR Motorsports Marketing Forum presented by SportsBusiness Daily/Global/Journal at the Aria. "And he talked about technology and change and driving new fans and being more open and transparent and things of that nature.

"I remember thinking at the time, ‘Wow! Good luck with that, Brian.’ "I went off and (did) some other things for a few years, and it’s really gratifying to see, five years later, some of the things Brian talked to me about at that lunchtime in New York are really coming to bear."

Dewar answered a multitude of questions in a session titled "Fireside Chat: A Year in Review and the Plan Moving Forward," but much of what he addressed was the positive response to the new elimination-style Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format introduced this year.

As Dewar pointed out, this year’s playoff succeeded not only in attracting new fans to the sport but also in recovering what he termed "lapsed fans," as the buzz around the Chase reached critical mass. In addition, the intensity of the competition in the Chase enhanced the fundamental nature of the competition itself.

"In my first weeks at NASCAR, we were rolling out the concept to the teams," Dewar said. "Brian France, he was the brainchild of the change… He approached the drivers about ‘Listen, you guys aren’t racing hard enough,’ and a number of them, really, said, ‘That’s not true — we race every weekend, we race to win.’

"And he said, ‘Look, guys, I’m not a race car driver…’ But you take Brian, who’s been around the sport since he was a child, with his father and grandfather, and he felt and saw a difference. And this format really brought that out."

EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY

It’s easy to enumerate a long list of technological innovations in NASCAR racing — from the NASCAR Green agenda to the Fan and Media Engagement Center to the Air Titan track-drying system to the online rulebook and parts database — but one of the most innovative changes is yet to come, according to NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell.

"Next year, starting at Daytona, we’ll be implementing technology as a referee in our sport," O’Donnell said Wednesday at the NASCAR Motorsports Marketing Forum.

Not only will race officials have a database at their disposal for inspections, but calls on pit road also will be made based on real-time video observation of every aspect of a pit stop.

"We believe we’ll be the first sport to incorporate technology in every second of every race," O’Donnell said. "Everything will be under review."

From May on, NASCAR ran the "technological refereeing" as a redundant system to the human officiating. O’Donnell said the Chase race at Phoenix would have yielded 75 penalties on the technological side, for example, something the sanctioning body will have to address with the teams.

Accordingly, NASCAR is taking crew chiefs and pit crew coaches through the system next week to familiarize them with the new "referee" before the system goes live at Daytona.

TOYOTA CELEBRATES 10th ANNIVERSARY

Toyota may be the most recent manufacturer to join the NASCAR ranks, but Keith Dahl, the automaker’s corporate manager of motorsports and engagement marketing, doesn’t consider the brand the new kid on the block any more.

In fact, in terms of its presence in the sport, Toyota, which debuted in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2004, has come a long way since its first foray into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at the 2007 Daytona 500. There, Toyota’s activation of the brand took place in the parking lot of the now-defunct Cancun Lagoon restaurant across from the speedway.

Today, Toyota maintains an increasingly pervasive presence in the sport, with race entitlements, official pace cars and such partnerships with NASCAR as "Chase Grid Live" in Chicago and official truck status for the Air Titan track-drying system.

For Dahl, of course, the bottom line in NASCAR marketing is driving showroom traffic and increasing opinion and purchase consideration among NASCAR fans.

"We are delighted with NASCAR’s partnership," Dahl said. "It’s opened up a lot of doors for us. It’s a substantial part of our investment, but it’s an easy business case to make."

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"It’s really hard to be able to show the appreciation that you have for it as much as you need to, because you really can’t ever get to the point of appreciating it enough," Harvick said after he and crew chief Rodney Childers interacted with the crowd. "As you go to different places and you’ve seen other countries and how things operate, you really appreciate being from the United States and living the life that we live.

"We’re very fortunate, but it takes a lot of sacrifice from a lot of individuals to make that happen. So any time you can do an event like this and say thanks and just be part of the activities, it’s definitely worth the time to do that."

Ever since he won the championship by a half-second over Ryan Newman in the season finale at Homestead, Harvick has been the focus of a whirlwind media blitz that has included appearances on such TV staples as "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

What resonated most, however, was an appearance at his hometown high school in Bakersfield, California, on Monday, where Harvick addressed an appreciative crowd of 960 students.

"That’s still by far the coolest thing I’ve gotten to do so far," Harvick said. "All the TV shows and all that stuff is just—I shouldn’t say part of the job, because that’s really neat, too, to be a part of that—but to go back and go to your hometown and go to your high school and be able to speak to the kids and hopefully be an influence to them in their life… We’ve done a lot of work at the high school over the past several years, really trying to have a positive impact on the kids and their situations, whether it be with the sports teams or just talking to them in general.

"We’ve put a lot of effort into the school. So to be able to take that trophy back and show them, ‘You can be rich, you can be poor, but if you put your mind to what you’re doing and have a goal and follow your dream, you can accomplish it, because I have proof of it.’

"I grew up right where they all grew up and accomplished what we’ve accomplished. It’s good to be able to have the ability to have an influence on people’s lives."

For Harvick, the most difficult thing about the non-stop schedule and constant attention is that he hasn’t been able to share the experience with his team members, whom he hasn’t seen since Nov. 16 at Homestead.

"I got out of the car and did an interview and went up on stage and took all the pictures, and that’s the only time I’ve seen my whole team," Harvick said. "The rest of it has just been part of the process of getting to championship week and the banquet and everything.

"But I’m most excited about seeing my guys and talking to ’em and having dinner with ’em and being able to really start to take it all in and just talk about everything that was done."

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