NASCAR Chair & CEO Brian France yesterday said that the Chase for the Sprint Cup format adopted last year "will remain unchanged" for '15, according to Tom Jensen of FOXSPORTS.com. He said the sanctioning body is coming off "perhaps our greatest Chase and certainly in recent memory." France: "It's overwhelmingly popular with our most important stakeholder, the fans. ... They like the fact that it tightened up competition. They liked the drama down the stretch. They like the emphasis on winning. And one of the things they told us that they really liked is the idea that we weren't going to change anything. And they strongly suggested that we didn't. And we're not going to" (FOXSPORTS.com, 1/26). France said that NASCAR officials "discussed 'a tweak or two' -- possibly including a separate points system for Chase drivers -- but ultimately decided the simplicity of the format was too important to muddy." NASCAR Exec VP & Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O'Donnell said that officials "were satisfied with the Chase at the end of the season and determined no changes should be made, even if winless Ryan Newman nearly won the title in what was supposed to be a format that emphasized winning." USA TODAY's Jeff Gluck reports NASCAR still is "considering changing the format of some races to include the heat races seen at short tracks around the country." France also has been "meeting with the owners and teams separately but is not speaking with the Race Team Alliance, which includes almost every team, as a separate entity" (USA TODAY, 1/27).
IF IT AIN'T BROKE...: ESPN.com's Ryan McGee noted NASCAR "resisted its natural urge to fiddle with how the Sprint Cup title will be determined, a non-announcement that produced zero confusion among fans and visible relief among those who run the sport." NASCAR President Mike Helton: "I do think there is something to be said about establishing consistency from year-to-year." He added that NASCAR "has heard fans' complaints about too many changes too often." The fans said that it "makes the sport too difficult to keep up with and that as soon they did figure it all out, it felt as if it all started changing again" (
ESPN.com, 1/26). ESPN.com's John Oreovicz noted NASCAR officials "were privately thrilled" with the results of the '14 Chase, and instead of "making a knee-jerk reaction to appease fans who were unhappy about circumstances that befell their favorite driver, NASCAR determined that no changes were necessary" (
ESPN.com, 1/26). In Charlotte, Scott Fowler writes NASCAR’s Chase format "remains terrific for the most part." But it "needs to close that one obvious loophole -- no one should be allowed to win the title without winning a single race" (
CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 1/27).
SPRINT TO THE FINISH: In Charlotte, Erik Spanberg noted NASCAR officials are "offering a bullish forecast when asked who might replace top-series sponsor Sprint" when it steps away after the '16 season. Since the announcement last month that Sprint would be leaving the sport, interested companies, as well as marketing agencies and other firms, "have had talks" with NASCAR execs. France yesterday said that he "expects Sprint to fulfill the last two years of its sponsorship rather than exit early." NASCAR COO Brent Dewar said that companies "need 12 to 18 months of planning to take on a major sponsorship such as backing the top NASCAR racing series." Dewar "declined to disclose the names of candidates to replace Sprint." But he said that NASCAR "hopes to announce a new title sponsor" before the '16 season (BIZJOURNALS.com, 1/26).
