NASCAR Chair & CEO Brian France last night reiterated that the sanctioning body "will be aggressive if a driver is found to have committed an act of domestic violence," echoing what he "said in November on the issue," according to Bob Pockrass of SPORTING NEWS. France, speaking on Motor Racing Network's “NASCAR Live,” said, "We will have a very strong, bright line that if that’s crossed, you can expect us to be very, very aggressive at dealing with it." Pockrass noted NASCAR "has not disciplined Kurt Busch, who is under investigation for domestic assault." It "remains unclear whether NASCAR would discipline Busch based just on testimony from the hearing" related to charges made by his ex-girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll. France: "We will watch that carefully and see what happens. But what we wouldn’t do is try to get out in front of a set of facts that haven’t been determined yet by the court system. That we won’t do. We will be careful in letting a fair process take place." Pockrass noted NASCAR "has a history of not suspending drivers for criminal acts away from the racetrack such as driving while impaired" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 1/6). France: "Society has a way of evolving with important topics like domestic violence. That is being scrutinized and dealt with much more severely and rightfully so. And so what leagues might have done in the past won't be acceptable in the future" (USATODAY.com, 1/6).
WEEKEND OF THE ROAD: NBCSPORTS.com's Chris Estrada reported while the concept of holding mid-week NASCAR races "has been repeatedly batted around for some time now," France "didn’t seem too keen on it" during last night's radio spot. France: "One challenge that we have, among others, is the current events that we have -- no one wants to give any of those up, so start with that. The other challenge that we would have is we don’t have home teams. ... What we rely on are 80 to 100,000 -- and even more -- people to make a weekend out of something, drive on average 200-plus miles, often stay more than two days, and bring their families. When you start doing that in mid-week with school and everything else -- even in the summer -- those kind of opportunities to draw people to these big speedways becomes more difficult" (NBCSPORTS.com, 1/6).
