Driver and team owner Tony Stewart on Thursday in an interview with SiriusXM Radio called on NASCAR Chair & CEO Brian France to "take a more active role at the racetrack," saying that drivers "never see Brian France," according to Jeff Gluck of USA TODAY. Stewart said, "I want to see him walking through the garage more. I want to see him being more active than just showing up and patting the sponsors on the back and going up in the suite. I want to see him down there in the trenches with everybody and understanding what’s truly going on. I think that’s where he needs to be for awhile." Stewart added, "I would like for him to be there because the stuff I’m talking about, I want to know before I leave that room that he understands. I want to see he cares enough to be there, not sit there and get a report from somebody. I know Brian France cares. But I think there’s a lot of things that get lost in translation between a driver going to talk to somebody in the (NASCAR office) trailer to the time it gets to him. Who knows what it sounds like by the time it gets up there -- or if it even gets up there. ... He doesn’t have to say anything. We just want to know that he’s hearing what we’re saying." Stewart said that he is the only driver who "will speak up to France about the problems facing the sport, and 'that’s the problem.'" Stewart said, "I don’t care what the repercussions are. I’m saying it because I care. I’m not trying to pick a fight with him. Nobody wants to disrupt the apple cart, nobody wants to make Brian mad. But we’re all in it together. If it doesn’t work for one, it doesn’t work for all of us" (USATODAY.com, 1/21).
