10 Questions With Brian France

NASCAR News - SportingNews.com

Brain France was born on August 2, 1962. He became the CEO and chairman of NASCAR following in his father's Bill France, Jr's footsteps in 2003. Before that he was in charge of NASCAR's marketing department and touring divisions. He was also the co-founder of the then Craftsman Truck Series in 1995. He also negotiated television contracts wtih several networks in 1999 and 2005. He was named one of the five most powerful sports excutives by TSN in 2005. He implementetd the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup in 2004. He is also the head of Brandsense, which is a marketing company whose list of clients include Tony Stewart, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and Brittey Spears just to name a few. On the downside NASCAR has been sued twice during his watch, by Texas Motor Speedway and Kentucky Speedway in an effort to secure dates for the tracks. He is attempting to take NASCAR in a different direction. NASCAR took the dates away from Rockingham and moved the Southern 500 from Labor Day to Mother's Day. It originally went to California and this year returned to Darlington. They introduced the new COT which has leveled the playing field for all of the competitors. He has done good things as well as some questionable things. But even with these tough economic times NASCAR seems to be holding it's own and is surviving. None of us know what the future holds but NASCAR is attempting to move forward with the changing times. And now without further adieu I would like to welcome Brain France.

SK: It is truly an honor to have you with us today. Thanks for taking time out your busy schedule to be here with us.

BF: The pleasure is all mine thanks for having me.

SK: You have made several changes since you have been the CEO, is it to cement your legacy as the CEO?

BF: No it isn't. It's just that I felt that we needed to change to stay in the mainstream with some of the other popular sports in America. We have and still are gaining new fans to our sport.

SK: You took alot of heat in the begining when the new Chase format was installed. And nbow there has been another change within the chase format. Consistantcy all along has been the key element to winning the championship, now with the way it is formated with the winningest driver getting the top spot in the points that just isn't the case anymore. The points in all reality don't mean anything. Why did you create the chase to start with and then why did you make it even more horrendous?

BF: We feel the chase has made NASCAR more exciting. It was originally started to become sort of our "playoffs." We also felt that there wasn't enough emphais put on winning during the season. We thought the driver and team with most wins should be rewarded.

SK: Will the Top 35 rule ever be dropped in favor of just having the fastest 43 cars/drivers in the race? I know that it stems from Scott Wimmer who was at BDR at the time and Scott Riggs who was with MB2 both missed the Atlanta race a few years ago. Both ran the full schedule at the time and two drivers who run a partial schedule made the race instead.

BF: No, we have no intentions of making any changes to the Top 35 rule at this time. You are right that was put in place partially becasue of that situation. Because of our unique situation we need to keep our corporate sponsors happy and gie them the best value for their sponsorship dollars.

SK: The FOX/HMS network is absolutely horrible. The coverage is horrendous and the announcing especially the play-by-play and DW is just awful. Do you plan to get your own network or maybe even hire your own announcers? Or do see just one network having all of the coverage? The reason I asked is becasue the FOX/HMS network was down 14% overall, so the people are sending a message.

BF: I think the coverage overall by each of the three networks is excellent. They all have good points and some bad points they aren't perfect and neither is NASCAR. As far as our own network that isn't on the radar at the moment. ALthough that is something we could start to think about.

SK: You have taken alot heat over the COT. Granted there are still tracks that when somebody get's out front they run away from the field. Although the racing in the pack as been great. Is there any changes coming down the road to the COT?

BF: There could be some small minor changes. We just had the meeting with all of the owners and drivers and we had some exellent input. We are still thinking about it and what if anything could be done improve the car.

SK: With the new speedway that was built in Iowa, and the Camping World Truck Series will race there this year, will they and possibly Kentucky ever be added to the Cup Schedule?

BF: At this point there really isn't a place on the schedule. And as far as Kentucky is concerned I can't comment on that situation because of the pending lawsuit. To add them either the schedule has to be expanded or someone loses a date they now have. For us it is a no win situiation, and alot of factors go into that decision.

SK: Will the Nationwide and Truck Series ever see a Chase for the Championship?

BF: That is something that hasn't been considered as of yet. Last year the Truck series Championship came down to the last lap of the last race of the season. The Nationwide series has had eciting finsihes the last few years as well.

SK: This weekend in an effort to make NASCAR even more exciting you created a new rule and had double-file restarts. Dou see this going to the other series as well?

BF: Yes it is a possibility. I'm not sure when it might be implemented but it is a possibility.

SK: The new drug policy is a good thing and a step in the right direction. Will there be any changes to the current policy?

BF: That is still a work in progress. We have made tremedous strides in that area and will continue to strive to get a fair policy in place that everyone understands and is easy to follow.

SK: Are there any other major changes coming down the road?

BF: We are happy with the way things are heading right now. We seem to be the most popular auto racing sport there is and we feel we are heading in the right direction and are excited about the future.

Once again I want to thank you for taking time out of your schedule and spending a few moments with us. On the next Up Close and Personal we will get back to our usual format, we will have my favorite PGA member the one and only Phil Mickelson.

The interview of course is fictional. However the responses were written realisically with information gathered from several sources. The backround information was obtained from wikipedia.com.

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