NASCAR yesterday confirmed that drivers "have formed a small drivers' council that will meet with NASCAR officials on a regular basis," according to Jeff Gluck of USA TODAY. Approximately six to eight drivers "met with NASCAR on Saturday night at the Dover Downs Hotel & Casino adjacent to the racetrack, speaking openly about issues in the sport, including safety." The council "includes drivers such as Denny Hamlin, who led initial efforts to get drivers together, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick." NASCAR Senior VP & Chief Communications Officer Brett Jewkes in a statement "downplayed the meeting as something officials do on a regular basis." But Hamlin said that the meeting "was the first of its kind with NASCAR." Gluck notes officials "have held preseason town hall meetings with race teams and addressed drivers as a group in years past, but this is the first time in recent memory there’s been this sort of driver council." Hamlin: "We’ve been trying to get all of our drivers together for about a year now, trying to get all of our ideas in one room together. NASCAR knew we were trying to form a line of communication, so they helped us start a driver council which gives us that forum to allow us to talk about things we want to talk about." One of the topics in the meeting, "which lasted approximately two hours, was going track by track and evaluating the current safety equipment" (USA TODAY, 6/1). Hamlin said that it "was 'fair to say' that he had been organizing the driver-side of the program -- which has been in the works" since after the Race Team Alliance was formed last July. Earnhardt said, "NASCAR asked us to do that, so we could just get together and have a better ability to communicate, driver to NASCAR, NASCAR to driver. It’s just a better platform, a better way to have discussions -- everybody wants the same thing, so we’re just trying to work together" (MOTORSPORT.com, 5/31).
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU CALL THIS: ESPN.com's Bob Pockrass reported NASCAR Exec VP & Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O'Donnell "shook his head in disagreement of the characterization of it being a drivers' council." He added, "We met with some drivers like we always do -- ongoing conversations that we always have (in) dialogue with the drivers." Pockrass wrote NASCAR "has a history of discouraging organized factions within the sport, and once banned future Hall of Famer Curtis Turner for trying to form a drivers' union" in '61 (ESPN.com, 5/31).
