France talks ownership structure, Chase on MRN
France's remarks came during a preseason edition of MRN Radio's long-running "NASCAR Live" program, hosted by Eli Gold.
The NASCAR chairman said the sanctioning body has had productive meetings with team owners over the past several months, starting the talks "with a clean canvas." Though France said plenty of work remains before putting a new ownership structure involving team charters into effect, he said he was hopeful that a mutually beneficial system — one which adds value to participation in an ever-changing sport — could materialize.
"I don't have to tell you what an important stakeholder (team owners) are with NASCAR, so what we're always trying to do is look at their particular interests and see how we can make it work better," France told MRN Radio. "That could mean a lot of things — it could mean their ability to operate in a very expensive sport more efficiently, helping in a lot of ways to create value for their teams, and so that's what we're doing. We're having those kind of conversations that we hope will lead to a better outcome where the ownership experience is better, they're able to field better teams at a higher level and they're able to participate in a more meaningful way with NASCAR.
"I always say, if there's things we can do for any of our stakeholders that makes the sport better at the same time, we're going to make a strong effort to figure that out."
France opened the show with a fond tribute to NASCAR pioneer Marvin Panch, the 1961 Daytona 500 winner who died on New Year's Eve at age 89. France also revealed that he underwent offseason knee surgery.
Among the other topics in the hour-long Q&A with Gold and radio callers:
— France lauded the current Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff format, which enters its third year. In the last two seasons, the champion has also taken the checkered flag in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
"This is going to be the new level of expectation," France said. "I think you're going to see, year in and year out, that four teams, you're probably going to have to win the finale to win the championship. You're going to have to have big moments, come-from-behind moments to even make it, and I think the future is very, very bright with this style of racing."
— France also touched on one of the Chase's most pivotal moments, Matt Kenseth's retaliation for a series of perceived transgressions by rival Joey Logano (starting at Kansas Speedway and escalating through the Chase) with an intentional crash at Martinsville last November. France's initial reaction? "Very disappointed," he said, "and that's about as nice as I'm going to put that."
"Hard racing and things that happen like they did out there at Kansas — even if you're a Matt Kenseth fan, and I'm a big fan of Matt Kenseth's in general — is one thing, but what we're not tolerating is intentional changing the outcome of either a race, or in this case the championship. And we're going to draw a line, a very clear line, and whatever that takes because that's our credibility, and if that's tested in the future, it will be a very harsh response on our behalf."
— France mentioned Daytona Rising, the $400 million overhaul project at Daytona International Speedway that debuts this season with IMSA's Rolex 24-hour race and NASCAR's annual Speedweeks. France says he sees other speedways potentially following the historic 2.5-mile track's lead in developing a modernized sports stadium approach for fans.
"I think that other tracks will take a hard look at this and look at the business side of this, because that has to make sense, and I think they'll react in a way that will follow some version of what Daytona has done," France said. "I'm confident of that."
— France also fielded a fan's question about the success of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series' annual race on dirt at Eldora Speedway and whether the sanctioning body's Sprint Cup Series might ever return to an unpaved track. NASCAR's top division last raced on a dirt track in 1970.
"I would say that would be a very big long shot, in particular that we've just done multiyear sanctions with the tracks and every track has no interest in sharing their dates with other venues — and it's working pretty good as it is," France said. "I like dirt racing, too. I've promoted dirt racing myself in Tucson before we paved it, and there's nothing more exciting than watching those guys do their thing. It's fun to see."