NASCAR Chair & CEO Brian France yesterday "compared the challenge sports are facing to the one retailers are facing because of the popularity of online shopping," according to Hank Kurz Jr. of the AP. At yesterday's Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Int'l Raceway, which once "routinely seated more than 100,000 fans for races in the premier Cup series, only 60,000 seats remain and they were not close to full" for the race. France said, "We're not isolated here. Every sport is trying to unlock the new consumption levels and fan interest by a younger demographic. Of course we love our core fan and everyone does, but every sport is thinking carefully about how to reach the millennial fan to get them excited about their sport." He said that NASCAR will convene a summit in May in Charlotte "bringing in experts from various fields, to discuss the issue." France also "downplayed the difficulty that some teams are having securing sponsorship for next season." He said, "It's only April. Those kinds of decisions from corporate America typically get made in August and September, something like that. We'll always have that. That's not anything abnormal." One advantage NASCAR gives sponsors, France said, is, "They can't own a team in any other sport, but they can here" (AP, 4/30).
LOOKING AHEAD: France said, "One of the things that was very important to me was a deeper collaboration. We started that with some industry meetings a number of years ago when we had the car of tomorrow and all that stuff. Now it’s very formalized. It goes from OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to track operators to drivers, of course. We really need their input. We’re going to get it. ... We’re going to bring in experts from different fields to interact with our council members and other members of the industry. I think we’re leading sports in that, and it’s working." More France: "I said this a long time ago, careers were not going to last as long as they did in previous decades with NASCAR. ... In the future, in my view, that age will get lower and lower. It used to be, you did race until your late 40s and maybe even over 50. That’s just not what you’re seeing today" (RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, 5/1).
ONE OF THE GREATS: USA TODAY's Brant James notes France "flew in a few hours" before yesterday's race to address Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s impending retirement. France said, "He’s meant a lot to the sport in many, many ways, on and off the track and not just his popularity and whatever, carrying on the Earnhardt name in such a good way. (He) always worked with NASCAR to make the sport better, just like his father did. That’s not always the case with drivers that come in." France "hadn’t made such an appearance to extol four-time series champion Jeff Gordon, another mainstream ambassador of the sport, or Tony Stewart last year." Either Earnhardt’s "singular popularity as a 14-time most popular driver or his loss in conjunction with Gordon and Stewart apparently prompted France to make a public acknowledgement." France: "Obviously, we’re also in a transition with many drivers who have retired or moved on in the last two or three years that were racing at a high level, whether it be Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards unexpectedly that have decided that their time (is done)" (USA TODAY, 5/1). FOXSPORTS.com's Tom Jensen gave four takeaways from France's "surprise press conference" (FOXSPORTS.com, 4/30).
NEW CROP: In Richmond, Randy Hallman wrote new NASCAR drivers always "emerge to replace the old," and it is "happening right now." The starting grid for yesterday's race was "full of young contenders." Twenty-four-year-old driver Kyle Larson, who is leading the Cup Series points standings, said, "Hopefully we all have a lot of Junior’s fans kind of dispersed to cheer for us, and don’t just leave the sport totally. ... All of us young guys are ready to kind of fill in his shoes a little bit" (RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, 4/30). In Daytona Beach, Ken Willis asked, "Where is the next racer or racers who will make people buy tickets or, maybe more importantly, turn on their TVs every weekend? We don’t know. How will we know when he or she arrives? Oh, we’ll know." The sellers will "do their best to sell you on the new crop, and maybe one of them, or one we haven’t even met yet, will become the type of polarizing force NASCAR fans crave." Some of the sellers of this current crop are the same who "tried selling you on big-market expansion and how it was 'good for the growth of the sport.'" Willis: "Well, it was good for the sellers" (Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL, 4/29).
