People "seldom find a consensus about anything in NASCAR," though Brent Dewar's promotion last week to President may be "an exception," according to Al Pearce of AUTOWEEK. Dewar is the fourth President in NASCAR history, and NASCAR Chair & CEO Brian France when making the announcement "spoke glowingly of Dewar and his accomplishments since joining NASCAR four years ago." NASCAR Vice Chair Mike Helton, the last exec to hold the President title, said that Dewar "had been 'unofficial' president most of this year." Helton: "The board's and Brian's strategies for succession were in place for some time. ... Over the last 18 months, Brent has kind of picked up the elements I had and some that Brian and other family members may have had. What we’ve had for the past five or six months is what we see today… the board has officially made Brent the president because he’s already been doing the job.” Helton said Dewar's promotion does not mean his is retiring, but he said, "I’m going to slow down and stay out of their way." Helton added NASCAR's "next generation of youth and intelligence" -- Dewar, Exec VP & Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell and Exec VP and Chief Global Sales & Marketing Officer Steve Phelps -- will be the leaders. General Motors NASCAR Program Manager Alba Colon said, "He’ll be good a president because he loves the company and loves the racing." Atlanta Motor Speedway President & GM Ed Clark said Dewar is "highly respected." Clark added Dewar is a "hands-on guy who understands every facet of what we do." Pearce noted team owners Jack Roush and Richard Petty are "not yet well-versed in all things Dewar." Petty: "I just know that when we have an RTA (Race Team Alliance) meeting, he's the one carrying the NASCAR load" (AUTOWEEK.com, 7/17).
START YOUR ENGINES: NBCSPORTS.com's Dustin Long notes the debate over start times for Monster Energy Cup Series races was "reignited this weekend on social media after some complaints by those in the sport." Dewar yesterday on SiriusXM Radio's "The Morning Drive" cited the schedule as an "example of collaboration with NASCAR’s partners, which includes TV networks." He also said there were "tradeoffs that we needed to make both for broadcast, tracks, teams, etc." Dewar: "We did some later start times this year and some in the industry have not liked that, but it was important to interact with our West Coast audience. Still our largest audience is California, and 1 o’clock starts is too early for them on the West Coast. So we’re trying to find the right balance of that. But yes, I think you’ll see more innovation to make it a win-win for the industry. We will do it together as an industry. It won’t be unilateral on NASCAR’s part.’’ Long noted there are just three Cup races this year that "had start times listed" as 1:00pm or 1:30pm ET, compared to 12 in '16 (NBCSPORTS.com, 7/17).
