NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France says changes are coming to the Chase for the Sprint Cup. (Photo: Getty Images)
It’s no secret that 2009 has seen its share of challenges for NASCAR, with the soft U.S. economy being felt throughout the garages of all three of the sanctioning body’s top series.
NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France stopped by the Homestead-Miami Speedway Media Center to deliver his annual state-of-the-sport update.
Excerpts from France’s media session follow.
Opening remarks:
Good morning, everyone. One way or the other this weekend we're going to make a little bit of history or a lot of history depending on how it goes. Jimmie Johnson could make history with his fourth consecutive championship, quite an accomplishment.
We could make history if Jimmie has a problem and Mark Martin wins, he would be the oldest champion in NASCAR history to win a title. We could make history either way if Rick Hendrick, and he will, wins his ninth championship and ties Richard Petty. Either way, however it goes out this weekend, it will culminate a good season of racing and we're excited about that, whatever the outcome is.
We have had on balance a very good season. You expect me to say that, but it has been. We're not without our ups and downs. In a long season, as many races as we have, we're going to have some of those. But we're real pleased with a lot of the things we did accomplish through what still remains a very difficult economy, very difficult on our race fans.
The sponsorship front is getting better. There are companies joining the sport. That's encouraging. But it's still not what we all anticipated and hoped it will be in the future.
We will continue our part in making it more affordable for the teams to race. We'll be working with them in a substantial way to help the sponsorship piece, which they're so reliant on, we're all reliant on, do as well as it can do.
Certainly with the car manufacturers, we're certainly happy that all the car companies have stabilized. We didn't know this a year ago, what all would have occurred, transpired, but it did. The good news is they're out and doing business, doing better than they had been in the past. It's a very encouraging thing. They're a very integral part of what happens at NASCAR.
We've worked carefully with all of those companies to make sure that they stay in NASCAR, they're a good value, we're a big part of what they do in the future. On balance, that was all achieved. No small thing on everyone's part.
Where do you see opportunities for NASCAR that maybe you haven't looked at before or new things coming on deck for 2010?
Well, you know, to me it's about making sure that race teams, starting with the teams, that they have their new business model figured out, because it's changed drastically. Same with our tracks. So I would say that's still the priority.
Obviously, you know, we're on our way to doing some things that are going to be more appealing to what we see as an emerging green economy, where new companies, new technologies are coming out. They're going to need to build their brands, build their companies' awareness, their technologies. We're going to be a very, very important place for those companies to invest in in the future. We're doing a lot of things in that area that will give us a chance to convince them to join into this sport.
