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In a Sunday interview with FOX Sports, NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France described the current racing product as “markedly better.”
“I never give it a ‘10’ because we’re always a work in progress, but I think the racing (is) markedly better,” France said. “It’s our biggest challenge to balance the rules packages that offer the best style of racing for us, but we’re on our way.
“(There’s) a lot of cooperation with the teams like never before, putting a lot of emphasis on it, and we’re getting better results. We’re really happy with things.”
France expressed satisfaction with the way the new charter system for team ownership and the input from drivers is working to improve the sport.
“A lot of structural changes that allow us to build for the future in a smarter way, and I think that’s the main thing, so it allows the owners to look at their expenses differently and build some enterprise value, gives them some assets that they didn’t have before,” France said. “And then it aligns our interests, too, which is very important.
“And then with the Drivers’ Council and all that, that gives us the input that we need. That gives us the cooperation. This is an industry that, the better we’re cooperating together, the better we deliver for our fans, which is the best, closest racing in the world.”
When asked if he was concerned about the marketability of the sport with some of the top drivers getting older, France discussed the abundance of young talent matriculating to NASCAR’s highest levels.
“Well, I would be (concerned) if we didn’t have such a talented group of young drivers, and that’s one of the things when we started the Drive for Diversity, we were out looking for different talented drivers maybe of a diverse background, so you see Daniel Suarez being an exemplary proof of that program. So we have a lot of talent coming, with some big names in Chase Elliott and others. And they’re talented … that’s what drives this sport is talent, and we’ve got a lot coming.”
France also has been pleased with the recent fundamental structural change to an elimination format for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and doesn’t expect any major modifications in the near future.
“We made a lot of structural changes, and they’re important, but I think we have – now we can build on those,” he said. “I’ve always said if we got the Chase right, which it took a little while for us to get it just right, that’s something that’s very unique in auto racing.
“Takes time to understand that even if, as simple as it is, because it’s so unique in auto racing, we can build around that. No structural… no big changes in the future.”