CUP: France – Sport Has Great Momentum

Sprint Cup

CUP: France – Sport Has Great Momentum

NASCAR chairman Brian France says the sport hopes to build on the strengths from 2011…

Mike Hembree | Posted January 26, 2012 Charlotte, NC

NASCAR chairman Brian France was last divorced in 2008. (Photo: Getty Images)

NASCAR has seen a smorgasbord of changes at administrative and rules levels in recent seasons, so NASCAR chairman Brian France seemed somewhat relieved Thursday during his state of the sport address to report a total of none for this year.

“We enter this season with great momentum,” France said Thursday afternoon at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. “We’re coming off our best championship battle ever. Our focus for 2012 is continuing that momentum.”

The Sprint Cup Series had a bristling battle for the championship, 18 different race winners and five first-time winners in 2011. Although the racing at some tracks – in particular intermediate-range facilities – was lacking, the season generally was judged to be one of the best in the sport’s history.

“The sport is in a very good place right now,” France said. “We’re working even harder to achieve the best things for the sport of NASCAR in the future. We expect to have another competitive battle for the championship.”

France said the sanctioning body’s decision to make fines against competitors public, a choice revealed Wednesday, was made because of complaints.

“Frankly, we didn’t have a real strong opinion on that,” he said. “But it seemed to bother people. If it’s something that people think is a good thing, we were happy to do it.”

France said, however, that NASCAR will continue to fine competitors who “challenge the integrity of the sport. We’re going to deal with that. We have to deal with that. Some of these comments were irresponsible and unhealthful for growing the sport.

“We’re not talking about those who are critical of NASCAR. … It’s when you go after the integrity of the sport is when we’ll step in.”

Both France and NASCAR president Mike Helton emphasized that the sanctioning body is making every effort to lessen the emphasis on tandem drafting at Daytona and Talladega, particularly for the season-opening Daytona 500.

“I’m confident that the tandem racing that we saw ’11 conclude with won’t be a part of the Daytona 500,” Helton said. “But we’re not going to write a rules package that prevents the drivers from racing close to each other. That’s NASCAR racing that fans expect.

“We think the Daytona 500 will be more in line with the fans’ expectations. You’ll still see, more than likely, cars pushing each other, but that was happening in 1959 and 1979. But I also expect there could be some tweaking that has to take place along the way [during Speedweeks at Daytona]. We’re all on the same agenda to make sure the Daytona 500 is what it deserves to be and the fans expect it to be.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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