On Monday, Brian France was a guest on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s Sirius Speedway with Dave Moody. On the show, France said that he anticipates small changes to the 2015 Sprint Cup Series schedule when it is released later this year in September.
“There’s not going to be a dramatic change but there may be some things that are a little different,” France said. “That’s not unusual. You come back to moving dates around and whatever else, we don’t do a lot of it, but we do a little of it from time to time and this will be one of those moments.”
With the rain that has affected the sport this year and years past, plus a new television package on the horizon with FOX Sports and NBC Sports, the changes could help improve the layout of the racing moving forward from a competition, travel and weather standpoint.
“There’s been some weather issues, as you well know, in the last several years at Bristol, and then some other things that we would naturally look at as we go along in the schedule, and now that the Chase format is changed, there’s additional interest to move (dates) from one place to another,” France said.
France also commented on Monday that he didn’t feel the creation of the Race Team Alliance was necessary and listening to one voice, even if consensus, would go against NASCAR’s business model. This in response to the announcement that RTA and NASCAR will only speak to one another via their attorneys.
“That would probably be the worst thing we could ever do -– to listen to one voice, even if it were a consensus voice,” he said. “Every decision we’ve ever made that’s important, the more input, the more people we heard from, the better the result. That will never change in the business model of NASCAR, because good ideas come from all over the place.”
Earlier this month, nine multi-car Sprint Cup Series teams announced that they have formed a collaborative business association called the Race Team Alliance (RTA). This group of nine plans plans to explore ways to make the business aspect of NASCAR better for the long-term health of the sport. The following teams are part of the RTA: Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing and Team Penske. The organization has stated that they intend to open up membership to all full time NSCS teams. Rob Kauffman, co-owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, has been elected the first chair of the RTA.
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Residing in Canada, she freelances for a number of racing publications, from SpeedwayMedia.com to On Pit Road while covering local short tracks up in Ontario.
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