Brian France attends Drivers Council meeting (Update)
France attended the first hour and 15 minutes of the meeting before leaving for another commitment.
"I was glad Brian was there," Joey Logano said. "It’s the first one he’s come to. We’d like him to be there at every one. I felt like the meeting really moved forward with him there. I think there is some positive stuff coming down the pipeline."
None of the drivers who attended the meeting offered any specifics on what was discussed or how France responded to driver suggestions.
"The things that go on in that meeting — if you guys (news media) needed to know about it, you’d be invited," quipped Kevin Harvick at the end of an interview.
Harvick said the discussion was open and that everyone had a chance to speak.
"That’s the great thing about the group we have," Harvick said. "You can say what you want to say amongst the drivers on the council, and you’re not going to offend everybody. Everybody has an open mind about pushing the sport in a better direction. It’s not a situation where you want to hold back and not say something because you’re worried about offending somebody. It’s an open forum. That makes it productive and a lot of fun, too."
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| Brian France |
04/30/16 NASCAR chairman Brian France was busy meeting with drivers Friday, first privately with Tony Stewart and then he attended his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Drivers Council meeting Friday night at Talladega Superspeedway. France was criticized by Stewart in January for not going to the meetings, which typically are attended by other NASCAR top executives.
Stewart also was fined $35,000 last week for the tone of comments critical of NASCAR's commitment to safety in reference to its not policing whether lug nuts are tight on wheels.
"It was very productive and at least from Brian's perspective, it was well done and he was happy he did it," NASCAR spokesman David Higdon said late Friday night.
The meeting with the nine-member drivers council was held in the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage and went past the time the garage was closed for the night. As he waited for a gate to be unlocked so he could leave the garage, France was asked if he delivered a message to the drivers. "No, we just had a good discussion," France said about the drivers council meeting.
The meeting went on for nearly two more hours after France left for another commitment. NASCAR spokesman David Higdon would not go into specific topics but said the meeting covered items for 2016 and 2017 and there were not discussions about Stewart's fine. ESPN.com