NASCAR driver/team owner Tony Stewart "wants to see" NASCAR Chair & CEO Brian France "at one of the Sprint Cup drivers council meetings, and he'd like to see NASCAR work with the teams to bear some of the costs on rule changes," according to Bob Pockrass of ESPN.com. The council met with NASCAR execs -- including Vice Chair Mike Helton, Exec VP Steve O'Donnell and Senior VP Gene Stefanyshyn -- in late May at Dover Int'l Speedway and "earlier this month" at Daytona Int'l Speedway. Stewart said, "Seeing NASCAR as a whole working with the teams and the drivers and be more accommodating as far as having the drivers council and the (owners association) RTA and them working with NASCAR the way they are, that is something that in 17 years that I've been in the Cup Series, I have never seen. It was all right to walk in the trailer and give them an idea, and that is as far as it always went. Now we're actually having meetings and working hand-in-hand." He added of what could be improved, "Seeing NASCAR's involvement on the more personal side, I'd love to see Brian France show up at some of these council meetings and stuff, but I'm sure he's busy." Pockrass wrote France "typically talks directly with drivers and team executives during preseason meetings with each organization" (ESPN.com, 7/14).
