NASCAR's Brian France, briefly, on the state of the sport

Brian France: the state of the sport....

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net


   CONCORD, N.C.
   NASCAR boss Brian France says the sport's research and development center, just a couple miles away from Charlotte Motor Speedway, will be taking an expanded role, with Steve O'Donnell, one of his top men, and the sport's vice president of racing operations, taking charge.
    One top project, France said, is to develop techniques for much quicker track drying, to cut as much as 20 percent off the current hour-plus process.
   France -- using a press conference to announce NASCAR's joining Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, the Women's National Basketball Association, and Major League Soccer in the social-change coalition Beyond Sport, to face questions about the state of the sport – comes to the track this week following several weeks of relatively lackluster racing out on the track.
   Drivers have been saying they're perhaps driving more cautiously because of the pressure to make the championship playoffs, and they have complained about aerodynamics keeping them from being more aggressive.
   France seemed defensive about that issue, and he was quick to defend the racing.
   "It's been a good season…and I think the storylines are what really dictates that," France said.
   "I think you're seeing Jeff Gordon on track again. I think the moves we've made to where wins are going to matter again as we come down the stretch are going to come into play.
    "It's been a good, solid year."
    France, in what was a relatively brief six minutes with the media, said Danica Patrick has been good for the sport. "We knew she would," he said.
   "Most importantly she's made improvements. She's getting better and better, and some of her runs reflect that. And what determines her impact in the end is how well she competes. Nobody knows that better than she does."
    And he pointed to Darrell Wallace Jr., the 18-year-old racer making his NASCAR Nationwide debut in Iowa Sunday: "It's big if he competes well," France said. "He's someone with the most promise who is an African-American coming through our program. He has been dominant in the K&N series, which is very competitive.
   "We'll see how it goes in Nationwide this weekend (that tour is in Iowa); that's a breakthrough if it materializes. And if not him, someone will walk in the door and  be a star and it will be very good for us."
    To the issue of drivers 'complaining' about the pressure of points racing even so early in the season, to the point where they're more concerned with not making mistakes than with taking chances on the track, France was curtly dismissive: "Several drivers have complained…Well, we've never had that before.
   "That's racing."
   When pressed on that issue, and fan complaints about less than thrilling racing, France insisted "We're very attuned to the fan base."
   And France protested that people shouldn't be too quick to make judgment:
   "We look at it a lot of different ways; you can look at lead changes, you can look at cycles of things, more green flag laps than at other times (in history).
   "But you can't just snapshot things and give it a grade like that. We look at it overall; we look at things very carefully.
   "We've got a hard job; but it's our job to put rules forward that allow the best competition to come forward. And that's what we've done for 60-plus years.
    "And it's not getting any easier, with the technology and the great innovators in this garage.
   "But we're zeroed in on what we have to get done."
 
    Another hot topic this spring is NASCAR's 2013 race car initiative. The sanctioning body is giving significant control over the design of those cars to Detroit car makers. The pace of progress, however, may seem slow.
    The one major test so far was at Homestead in late January. The next time those new models are to be on a track testing is unclear.
    "Our goal is to take moments with new cars and new opportunities to make the racing better, and that's what we're doing," France said.
   "We're making a small adjustment with the (current car's lower side panel) skirts here this weekend, to look at the aero impact (taking away downforce).
    "We're really repurposing the R&D center in very big way. Steve O'Donnell has taken full charge of that…so we can increase our focus on the things that make the racing better.
    "Obviously we're focused on safety; that's a given.
    "But we're zeroing in on the aero issue. And from time to time there will be other issues. We want to get at those faster, with innovation.
    "You're going to see some things, like (improvements) in drying the track off. We're working with companies on that. That would be a big breakthrough for the industry if we're able to do that.
   "You will see the R&D center taking a much more active role…in everything from performance on the track to innovations. We're looking forward to that.
   "We have a new car coming in '13, and we want to be sure that we're as good as we can be in the on-track quality of racing. We're putting more effort into getting that right.
   "And we also get thrown curveballs, like that tandem racing (at Daytona and Talladega), which fans didn't care for as much.
   "So from time to time we have big things that affect the quality of racing.
   "We just want to make sure we can get at those solutions faster and better. And our group is going to get that done."



   NASCAR's Steve O'Donnell: stepping up the pace of things at the R&D Center (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)