CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Brian France didn’t expect to spend his 10-year anniversary as chairman of NASCAR sorting through the biggest credibility crisis in the sport’s history.
As he waded through the intricate layers of race teams manipulating the outcome of a pivotal event, France was forced to make unprecedented rulings. He spent the actual anniversary of the day he succeeded his late father, Bill France Jr., using his authority as head of the family business to expand the 12-driver field for NASCAR’s version of the playoffs to accommodate wronged driver Jeff Gordon.
The next day, on the eve of last Sunday’s opening race for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, France angrily faced the competitors. France told the drivers the scandal had reached NBC Nightly News, which had called NASCAR fixed in its piece. The $8.2 billion TV package NASCAR announced in July that begins in 2015 includes NBC.
Integrity must be restored immediately, France demanded.
At least one longtime participant thought France’s leadership last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway was not that different from his old man.
“I think Brian France did a great job, he stepped up and he said ‘I made the decision and this is the way it’s going to be,’” said Rick Hendrick, winner of 10 Cup championships. “It sounded like Bill - ‘I’m going to make sure this doesn’t happen, and this is the way we are going to race from here on.’”
It’s been a messy two weeks for NASCAR, which heads today into Round 2 of the Chase, one of France’s very first creations after taking over the post his father held for 31 years.
What began as an attempt by Michael Waltrip Racing to manipulate the outcome of the Sept. 9 race at Richmond to get one of its drivers into the Chase field blew wildly out of control even after NASCAR issued one of the largest penalties in history against Waltrip’s team. At least one other instance of race manipulation was uncovered and France, who doesn’t always take a hands-on role at the race track, had a front and center presence in two days’ worth of damage control at Chicago.
But as NASCAR’s credibility was called into question, and France ordered drivers to give 100 percent in new rules prohibiting the artificial altering of events, the damage continues. NAPA Auto Parts on Thursday said it was ending its multimillion dollar 12-year partnership with Waltrip, and MWR is now fighting for its survival.
Waltrip declined Friday to second-guess NASCAR’s handling of the scandal, but indicated France’s meeting with competitors last week has closed any loopholes in the rule book. MWR was fined $300,000, its general manager has been suspended indefinitely and driver Martin Truex Jr. was kicked out of the Chase. Meanwhile, Penske Racing and Front Row Motor Sports received probation despite evidence showing the teams may have bargained to get Penske’s Joey Logano into the Chase, and France used his power to expand the field to give Hendrick’s Gordon a spot in the Chase.
“We now clearly understand what is and isn’t acceptable behavior,” Waltrip said. “As long as we know the rules and everyone plays with them and we’re all governed the same and that’s the case going forward, then we’ll say that we’ve learned a lot from this situation and we’ll be better prepared to race forward. Other folks didn’t get as big a penalty for some things they did. We have to accept what we were given. We can’t worry about what other people were given.”
The third generation France to lead the racing series formed in 1948 by his grandfather, the late Bill France Sr., Brian France has a more open-door policy than his father ever did during his three decades leading NASCAR, particularly since the disastrous debut of the Car of Tomorrow in 2007.
France views that car as one of the biggest mistakes of his reign, and since has tried to rely on more input from team owners, drivers and manufacturers on important decisions.
“I think Brian’s done a good job. I work with him. Sometimes he listens. He doesn’t listen all the time. We debate issues sometimes. I’m proud to say sometimes I win. I’d like to win all the time,” said Bruton Smith, owner of Speedway Motorsports Inc. and the late Bill France Jr.’s biggest adversary. “But I don’t. We’ll continue to go down the road with him.”
In this case, Waltrip said MWR co-owner Rob Kauffman had a dialogue with France, but it didn’t make a difference. “They were pretty well set on their decision, and we elected to accept the penalties and try to move forward,” Waltrip said.
It’s impossible for France to not have similarities to his father, who had zero tolerance for anyone who messed with his show.
“In our family, the way everything works, you grow up around the dinner table, so he was getting a pretty good education from Bill when he was very young,” said Jim France, Bill’s brother and NASCAR’s executive vice president.
But Brian’s vision often differed from his father’s in that France thought bigger and broader from an early age. His first big coup came before he was chairman in a move that helped NASCAR take the final step away from a regional niche sport.
France ended the practice of individual tracks negotiating their own television deals with NASCAR’s first national TV package in 1999. The deal with NBC Sports, Turner Sports, FOX and FX cable tripled the number of Cup races shown on broadcast television when the contract began in 2001.
“Part of the evolution of being a regional sport and becoming national, getting international recognition, you have to elevate your game, and those are things Brian recognized from the very beginning,” Jim France said. “He’s done a masterful job of shepherding NASCAR through the changes. I don’t think there is another motorsports organization in the world that has all of the disciplines that NASCAR has, and a lot of them started before Brian took over the role from Bill, they were things he was working on before his current role.”
Although racing is his business, France is a sports fan at his core. “I’m the biggest sports fan in the company,” he boasts, and claimed it wouldn’t be unusual to find him at a high school football game, professional tennis match or college basketball game. He cites Duke basketball as his favorite team - “I admire their coach immensely” - and has often been linked to so-far unfounded rumors of interest in purchasing an NFL franchise.
But it’s that passion for sports that can be found all over his decade as chairman of NASCAR. France doesn’t look at his sport as an auto racing series when he makes strategic decisions, instead he considers the big four professional leagues.
It’s how NASCAR ended up with the Chase format in 2004. France saw it as way to add excitement when NASCAR goes head-to-head with the NFL, and he’s tinkered with the format since its debut, expanding the field, adding wild card berths and bonus points for “regular season” victories, in an effort to create what he calls “Game 7 moments.”
For France, it’s part of the evolution of keeping NASCAR relevant in relation to and other sports, particularly as NASCAR’s television ratings and attendance have slid since the 2008 economic collapse.
“We’ve always been trying to get television dollars or exposure or sponsor participation, stuff that you only get by having the size audience that will put you in line with the other professional sports leagues,” he said.
TODAY’S STARTING LINEUP After Friday qualifying; race today At New Hampshire Motor Speedway Loudon, N.H.
Lap length: 1.058 miles (Car number in parentheses) 1. (39) Ryan Newman, Chevy, 136.497 2. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevy, 136.082 3. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevy, 136.053 4. (78) Kurt Busch, Chevy, 135.868 5. (56) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 135.636 6. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 135.525 7. (27) Paul Menard, Chevy, 135.463 8. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevy, 135.410 9. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 135.371 10. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 135.208 11. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevy, 135.126 12. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 135.097 13. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 135.073 14. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 135.021 15. (42) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevy, 134.987 16. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 134.892 17. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevy, 134.477 18. (14) Mark Martin, Chevy, 134.420 19. (34) David Ragan, Ford, 134.292 20. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 134.217 21. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevy, 134.193 22. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 134.13223. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevy, 133.981 24. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, 133.792 25. (31) Jeff Burton, Chevy, 133.769 26. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 133.637 27. (51) Michael McDowell, Chevy, 133.548 28. (47) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 133.520 29. (55) Kenny Wallace, Toyota, 133.408 30. (93) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 133.301 31. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 133.282 32. (40) Landon Cassill, Chevy, 133.170 33. (30) Kevin Swindell, Toyota, 132.365 34. (13) Casey Mears, Ford, 132.232 35. (83) David Reutimann, Toyota, 132.200 36. (87) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 132.163 37. (36) J.J. Yeley, Chevy, owner points 38. (7) Dave Blaney, Chevy, owner points 39. (33) Tony Raines, Chevy, owner points 40. (95) Scott Riggs, Ford, owner points 41. (98) Johnny Sauter, Ford, owner points 42. (32) Timmy Hill, Ford, owner points 43. (35) Josh Wise, Ford, owner points
Sports, Pages 25 on 09/22/2013