NASCAR Chairman Brian France said that despite reports of a sale of at least a stake in NASCAR, “The France Family is locked and loaded in its dedication to NASCAR.”
France made the comment Wednesday when he called into the “Tradin’ Paint” show on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
France addressed many issues during his appearance. He discussed if the sport will put an Xfinity or Cup race at Eldora Speedway, the young guns and the possibility of more road racing, among other topics.
A Forbes story last month, citing unnamed sources, reported that the France Family was seeking only minority investors and not selling a majority stake in NASCAR.
Asked about reports on a sale of any part of NASCAR, France said: “Look, we’re focused on ruling and managing NASCAR. There’s nothing to report on that. Rumors are always interesting, but they’re seldom right. The France family is locked and loaded in its dedication to NASCAR.
On if he’ll be making a phone call to Tony Stewart in the near future to tell him that NASCAR is putting an Xfinity or Cup race at Stewart’s Eldora Speedway, France said: “Probably not going to have that phone call any time soon. The schedule is pretty full. He’s done a great job of running Eldora and other things he’s doing in the dirt track stuff, so good for him.”
On if the sport needs the young drivers to win more, France said: “I think for their interests, never mind the sport’s interests, if you’re Chase Elliott, you’re thinking about posting that win. If you’re Kyle Larson, you want to get more wins. Winning is everything in sports. So there’s no question about it. If they want to make their mark over time, they have to compete at a high level No. 1 and win No. 2.… The first thing I tell a young driver, ‘Don’t be happy to be here because you’re here for a reason because you’re really good. Now convert that into high competitive finishes and ultimately wins and be here for a long time.’ If you can’t win, you can’t be here for a long time. They understand that.”
On the contact late in races for wins in Cup in recent weeks, France said: “We celebrate that. We don’t shy away from that. That’s the difference between us and probably every other motorsports. They kind of cringe a little bit. We kind of like that. Obviously limits and we’ve always said that. There’s no question about that. What we’ve seen two out of the last (four) weeks is great. We love it.”
On road racing and future plans of any more such races, France said: “By the way, I think we’re the best road racing show in town. I think we do a great job with that. I would see more of that not less than that. Don’t know exactly how it flows out in terms of the schedule, whether there will be rovals or this or that. I will tell you that road racing in general is more popular than ever. IMSA, our brand of road racing that we’ve been trying to do for a number of years, is more popular than ever, more manufactures are participating and I’m excited about it. My uncle (Jim France, vice chairman of NASCAR) has done an incredible job. He’s put his heart and soul into this thing and it pays of. It fits in NASCAR in the way we do road racing … flat out to the floor and lots of pushing around and close tight racing and safe. That’s what we do.”
ICYMI: "The France family is locked and loaded to #NASCAR" says @NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France on #TradinPaint pic.twitter.com/pzCJAJ36G5
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) July 25, 2018
