NASCAR Chairman Brian France says changes to current Cup car possible; addresses other issues

Related stories: Transcript from NASCAR Chairman Brian France press conference

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – NASCAR Chairman Brian France said there could be a decision on possible changes to the NASCAR Sprint Cup car during the offseason, although he did not say when any of those changes might be implemented.

France said there were so many diverse suggestions about changes to the car during NASCAR’s meeting with owners and drivers in May that officials need to take time to decide on tweaks to the new car, which was used for select races in 2007 and has been used full time since 2008.

The quality of racing and the economy were among the topics France addressed during his annual season-ending news conference Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“There probably were some things that we could consider, but there were was no unanimous – boy if you just did this, it would improve that,” France said. “What we vetted out [from those meetings] was that we will take a look at some of the things in the offseason as you would expect us to. There are a couple of things that we will be looking at.

“One of the things that we felt strongly about is if we changed something in May or June, it would counter what we had said in the beginning – which is the car is going to take a little while to figure out, but when you did, we were going to have better racing by far, we were going to have safer racing. And if we changed things too much, too fast along the way, we will never get everybody comfortable with what they had.”

Most of the drivers are getting comfortable with the car and don’t need a lot of help, France said.

“We will look at some things in the offseason going into Daytona to see if we can make the car and the racing better than it is now,” France said. “That is absolutely our goal. That is always our goal. Absent to having passes every three seconds and photo finishes every race, which we would prefer [and] love to see that. If we don’t achieve that, we’re going to keep pushing forward and looking at ways to achieve somewhere between the great racing that we have now and utopia.”

France did say he thought the recent race at Talladega Superspeedway, panned by many fans and media members for too much single-file racing, was exciting. He said NASCAR did not change any rules, just enforced the current rules and will continue to look at the rules for restrictor-plate tracks.

“There were a lot of things that were, in my view, possibly misrepresented,” France said. “That doesn’t help us to worry about [those misrepresentations]. We had an exciting race – I know a lot of people will debate that – in Talladega when you look at lead changes.”

In addition to how the teams handle the car, the other main topic France addressed is how teams are handling the economy.

“We don’t feel that 2010 looks, from just a pure economy standpoint from what we’re hearing from our fans, an awful lot better,” France said.

At least four sponsors – Jack Daniel’s, Jim Beam, Crown Royal and DeWalt – will either completely leave the sport or decrease their team sponsorships next year. Allstate and Lowe’s have significantly cut back track relationships. Five full-time cars this year don’t have sponsorship announced for next year and are in jeopardy of not returning full time in 2010.

“Clearly the sponsorship market is tougher than it has ever been in my memory,” France said. “And I don’t anticipate that getting remarkably better, although I will tell you that we are starting to get inquiries, and our New York group and the teams which do the selling in the sport are starting to feel the ice thawing on that.

“There are companies - I think you will see some over the offseason - that are very close to joining us at one level or another. That doesn’t mean it will be all perfect from a sponsorship standpoint.”

France said his sense is that the sponsorship market will eventually improve.

“It will get better as we still have the best value proposition in sports despite any of the other dynamics in or around us,” France said. “It’s the only sport that you can brand on the playing field.”

Among other items from the news conference:

• France said the Chase For The Sprint Cup wouldn’t be tweaked because of Jimmie Johnson’s performance. He said Johnson’s potential fourth consecutive championship “is pretty incredible what they have done.”

“We could not have predicted anyone [with] as good a performance that Jimmie has had would have been able to achieve what he did and therefore [be] taking away some of the things that the Chase will deliver in normal sets of circumstances,” France said.

He did say NASCAR will always look at the format and make any tweaks, if necessary, but this would be a time for celebration.

“The only way that I think is fair is to recognize it for what it is – not to pick apart the format,” France said. “This isn’t a formula exercise in a computer all the time to get you some result that you want. This is about sports and live things that happen by the best drivers and the best teams in the world and who performs at a high level and when, and you have to say that is what we look at ultimately in deciding what is a good outcome or not a good outcome.”

• France once again stood behind the change in the sport’s policy from testing for drugs where there was reasonable suspicion to random testing this year. Suspended driver Jeremy Mayfield is suing NASCAR over the way it has conducted its policy and what he says was an inaccurate result for methamphetamines.

“We believe we made the right decisions to make an already tough policy even more tough,” France said. “We have to do that with the circumstances that go on in the country today and sports in general. The fact that we have a 200-mile-an-hour race car, we think it was very imperative that we improve our policy, which we did.

“We will stand behind that very clearly.”

As far as recent comments from Mayfield attorney Mark Geragos that some of NASCAR’s recent filings in the case were desperate moves and that NASCAR is trying to hide information, France said: “I’ve had a lot of experience with trial lawyers, more than I would like. … With trial lawyers, I’ve never been surprised with them about what they will say to get some outcome for somebody that they’re representing.

“We’re going to deal with them like we said we would. We’ve made all the comments we could make in terms of what we think has happened, and we’re going to go forward. It’s regrettable. Our preference is never to be in litigation over anything. We make the rules and hope that everybody abides by them. If you go get a trial lawyer, you go do something, that’s out of our control. Our only control at that point is to do the best we can in representing the entire sport’s interest in matters that affect them.”

• NASCAR will review its testing moratorium annually and eventually hopes to open up testing at some tracks that play host to NASCAR national touring series events.

“There’s some balance between no testing at all – which is the best savings equation for teams for sure – and having testing the way we’ve done in the past, which was a lot of testing,” France said. “There’s more publicity for the markets when teams are testing, getting events revved up in advance.

“Rookies [and] teams that are behind from a competition standpoint can make up some ground in the testing deal if it is available. … We obviously have chosen going the route of cost savings, knowing that that has some consequences that are not perfect for all. As we can dial it back as the economy gets better, we will. I don’t think we will dial it back to the level we were two or three years ago where it was an enormous cost [for] some benefit.”

• While not talking specifically about what was said to Brad Keselowski in the Sprint Cup hauler last week at Phoenix International Raceway, France said NASCAR wants drivers who drive hard and drive to win – and when that happens, there will be contact on the track.

“You didn’t see us overrespond when that happened in the Nationwide race at Phoenix,” France said about the incident between Keselowski and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin. “What you’re always worried about [if] things that are heated, and with retaliation, all those things, is escalation and unintended consequences.”

France said toeing that line is a balance.

“You have to make sure there are limits to hard driving and rivalries and whatever, but we certainly want [them]. We know how important they are, and we are going to do what we can to encourage them with some obvious limits as we go along,” France said.

• Finally, France was asked about Izod IndyCar Series driver Danica Patrick, who is considering a part-time NASCAR schedule to go along with an anticipated full-time Indy Racing League ride.

“She has taken a very hard look at this sport,” France said. “She’s a very recognizable, accomplished driver in her own right. I would love to see her compete at the highest form of racing in the world. I think she’s thinking about it. … I don’t know how well she’ll do.

“She has a lot of talent. She will be good for NASCAR, and how well she will perform is like any other driver that comes through the front door and sits in the car. You never know until they do it. And she probably doesn’t know. She’s certainly very welcome in NASCAR. I’ve told her that directly.”