channel their thoughts and criticisms differently and that is an unusual thing that we have to have people within the sport openly just criticizing as we go along but maybe that’s something very unique in NASCAR that no other sport has to sort out. We’ll sort it out.’’
Mad Mikie: First off, is this still a sport? With all the behind the scenes manipulation, selective enforcement of the rules, and the favoritism, you’ve turned what was a great sport into something akin to sports entertainment, like the WWE. Second, we do hear criticism during broadcast of other sports. The announcers for other sports have questioned rules changes, penalties, owners, coaches, team owners, decisions, and a host of other things in various sports.
In the past, your family kept such tight control over the media that nobody ever bothered talking about what was actually going on or would even mention it. When the few brave souls that did decide to mention what was wrong, they were blackballed or had other actions taken against them, such as pulling their hard cards. Your way of sorting things out Your Majesty will be to threaten the loss of hard cards of those who are critical of the sport and how you’ve managed to turn a great sport and family past time into a farce.
Q: Some fans may look at your comment as NASCAR is trying to quiet the commentators and keep them from telling the truth per se, can you clarify your feelings on the subject:
BRIAN FRANCE: “It’s not that way. We fully expect a lot of criticism for any number of reasons, judgment calls that are made, officiating calls that are made and some strategy or policy decisions that are made. We’ve always had that. That’s OK. What I’m saying is in opinions that are under the guise of criticism or being critical that just go on and on and on without much thought that’s different from some policy or rule violation that we didn’t handle correctly, somebody is more than fair to criticize us. It’s just there’s an unprecedented level that occurs when you espouse your opinion about how to do one thing or another.
Mad Mikie: You may have always had criticism Your Highness, it just hasn’t been out in the public arena like it is now. Folks aren’t going to roll over and play dead forever over the poor decisions you’ve made since you ass-ended the throne. When you started out as the Emperor of All Things NA$CAR, you said you had sold your palace in LaLaLand and were no longer interested in bringing a football team to LaLaLand. Then we find out from Magic Johnson, the then head of the Diversity Program, that in fact you had not sold your Western Palace and were in fact still very much interested in buying a football team to bring to LaLaLand. So your credibility was shot from the beginning. Then when reporters or drivers have been critical of yourself or your officials, they’ve had their credentials pulled. Two prime examples are Kurt Busch and Bob Dilner. They both made comments regarding NA$CAR and its’ officials and both had their hard cards pulled. So please don’t try to blow smoke up our tail pipes. You and your minions are still trying to control the media and their comments.
Q: Were you disappointed with the ABC broadcasters last weekend, their description of the race?
BRIAN FRANCE: I didn’t see it. I really didn’t see all of it.
Mad Mikie: You didn’t see it or you didn’t see all of it? Which is it? We already know you rarely show up at any of the tracks. If you really gave a hoot about what was happening, you’d do just what your father and grandfather did. You’d be at the track, talk to the owners, drivers, and fans, and get some real opinions. Instead, you listen to your Yes Men, boot licks, and spinmeisters. Part of what’s wrong with NA$CAR is your lack of interest in what’s actually happening. When the hype and marketing overshadow the racing itself, something is majorly wrong.
Q: Did you have any talks with ESPN/ABC officials about last weekend’s race?
BRIAN FRANCE: No, I did not.
Mad Mikie: Of course you didn’t talk to the folks from ESPN/ABC. You had one of your minions do it. Why else would they suddenly be jumping through the hoops to once again say all is well in Brian’s Big Top Circus?
Q: Part of because of last week, there’s been a lot of talk about competition. How do you look at competition?
BRIAN FRANCE: I think we’re getting better and I think it’s very good. I think we’ve had some great races at like Loudon and even Dover, places that are not known as having our most exciting races but they were. I think if you look at it on balance, we’re very pleased with the competitive level of things. It’s easy to get off track when you look at how good Jimmie Johnson has been, how dominant he’s been and sort of forget that there’s been lots of hard-fought passing and racing that has gone, but there has. We’re quite pleased with it going into … finishing up in 2009.
Mad Mikie: It’s getting better? TV ratings are running double digit losses for the majority of the play-off races, the regular season ratings were down, the grandstands are maybe 60-70% full, Motorsports Authentics is losing money hand over fist, I$C and NA$CAR are losing millions, so you think things are getting better? What was once a $4 billion a year business is now worth less than $800 million? This is better?
Q: Do you get the sense the fans watching on TV are seeing that? Some will say they don’t see all the action. So when you say the competition is really good they might disagree?
BRIAN FRIANCE: “I think what the case is you have certain drivers like Carl Edwards who has not, although he made the Chase, he hasn’t won a race and he was developing his fan base, won so many times and ran up front most of last year, has not done that this year. Dale Jr. obviously has not performed the way he wants to perform. It’s very driver specific. Those two guys represent a lot of fans, especially Dale Jr. If they’re struggling, it’s easy to say the racing is not as good as I think it should be. If my football team is not winning, I would think the league is not having as good of a year too. That’s normal.
Mad Mikie: The folks at home aren’t seeing any action because of the mandated coverage of the mandated cars on the track. Even folks at the track are being bored to tears with some of the races. So to say the competition is good, I ask as compared to what? Definitely not as compared to the races that were run under your father and grandfather. And with the introduction of the spec cars, the action on the track has gotten even more boring. And don’t even try to blame the drivers for your screw-ups. We can see through it Your Highness.
Q: Do you feel the drivers are being overly critical and the media are reporting. Let’s be honest, the drivers are the stars. The fans listen to the drivers. A while back you had the meeting with the driver to remind them the impact of their words. Have they forgotten that? Do they need to be reminded?
BRIAN FRANCE: No. We’ve had all kinds of discussions with drivers to realize things that they can say that taken out of context or whatever else. Largely, they’ve been trying to think about that as they’ve gone along. Commentators are the next round that people listen to. They hear them all the time, obviously on the broadcast. That’s sort of been one thing we’ve had our share of that. But you know, we’re going to take all the curveballs that go on and that as I said earlier are unusual in sports but they go with the culture of this sport. You know, the other part is we got really, really boisterous fans who want to share their opinion and go on NASCAR online or go on Sirius radio or any of the shows that you do. They have wide range of opinions and that’s one of the things … those are the opinions I’m looking for.
Mad Mikie: So at this latest Town Hall Meeting, you didn’t tell the drivers not to say anything critical or make comments which could be played back later to show the drivers’ displeasure with what’s happening on the track? So the drivers asking for No-Doze because the race is boring isn’t allowed any more? Comments questioning decisions made by Mr. Magoo and company aren’t supposed to be made? The drivers are all supposed to wear rose-colored visors while they’re driving so that they only say your mantra of “Everything is Beautiful”? Everyone is supposed to drink the Kool Aid and believe that everything is fantastic despite the huge financial losses that are happening? Better have another round of “sodas” a the Chart House Your Imperial Incontinence. Fans don’t need you telling them what is right and wrong with the sport. We have our own eyes to see what’s going on. We have our own ears to hear what’s being said. We are capable of forming our own opinions based on the information we‘re being presented with. We don’t need some spinmeister from the Royal Ministry of Propaganda telling us to drink the Kool Aid and that everything is fine when in fact it’s not. As one famous politician once said, “You can fool some of the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
Q: The fans?
BRIAN FRANCE: “The fans. The rest of them have an opinion that could be misguided. Let’s face they have agendas that go on, people that make up the sport, but our fans just really love the sport other than their own drivers.
Mad Mikie: The fans could be misguided? You mean we haven’t seen boring races at Fontana, Talladega, and the cookie cutter tracks? You mean the concerns about the Uni-Car and the fact that the sport has become a spec car series is misguided? The fact that the Chase for the Chumps has failed miserably is misguided? All the opinions the fans have to improve the sport that fall on deaf ears in the Ivory Towers are misguided? You have fans who love what was once a great sport. You have fans who love a certain brand of car. You have fans who love certain drivers. You have fans that you chased away who were fans before you were even a gleam in your daddy‘s eye. All these folks are misguided? Better make sure your bar tab for all those “sodas” doesn’t exceed your “tithings” Your Highness.
Q: How do you correct that? A fan’s opinion could be based off what a commentator or driver says. How do you get your message across. Some people would say that would get into a form of censorship. How would you address that?
BRIAN FRANCE: I said earlier that we welcome criticism on calls that are made, strategy, policy, that goes with the territory. What we’ll ask the commentators to do, they’re professionals and to look at how other professional commentators call other sports. They work with professional networks. They are professionals in their own right. They are professional directors. At some point they have to be professionals and that will be that.
Mad Mikie: You welcome criticism? Please. Who do you think you’re kidding? You dictate who, what, when, why, and how things will be covered by the networks. The Ministry of Propaganda does it’s damn best to control what goes out in the print media and on the web. We saw at least 12 replays of Johnson’s Lap 3 accident throughout the race. We saw the repairs being done on his car while the other cars on the track were racing. At Talladega and other races, any racing going on back in the pack is ignored unless it happens to be one of your Chosen Ones. Once we get to the play-offs for the Chase for the Chumps, we’re lucky to see anyone else getting any sort of coverage. There are supposed to be 43 cars on the track. We don’t even get to see the 43 cars during the regular season. You say they need to be professional in the booth? We fans have seen just how unprofessional they’ve been in the past reading from the official propaganda sheets. And now they’re unprofessional?. The fact that they were actually voicing their opinions and playing back driver opinions who were on the track instead of reading from your official propaganda sheets was refreshing for a change. We need more of that.
Q: A story in the Washington Post quoted Neal Pilson a TV executive and how he noted that the recession has, in a way, helped NFL ratings soar this year. Certainly NASCAR has been impacted by the economy with fans in the stands. If the NFL’s ratings are going up, why aren’t they doing that for NASCAR? Why is there a difference?
BRIAN FRANCE: Because there’s not one thing. The recession, you can make the case, I would agree with that. I think there’s a sense of community, a sense of people aren’t going out as much. They’re going to focus on something, it’s probably going to be their favorite team. I would agree with that. But if you don’t have storylines and nine other things going your way, then you won’t get all the benefit of that and the NFL has a lot of neat storylines with Brett Favre coming back and lots of parity in their league and they’re doing really well. In our situation, you can’t compare us to any one sport, but, obviously our storylines aren’t what they have been in the past and will be in the future. That’s just the way it goes.
Mad Mikie: Then how do you explain the empty seats in the grandstands before the recession? How do you explain the ratings slipping before the recession? And how do you explain the ratings tanking now when folks should be at home watching the races because of the recession? I can explain it but you can’t. And what sport in their right mind would chase away it’s die hard fan base like you’ve done? Explain that one Your Imperial (IM)Potent-ate.
Q: The question has been thrown out that with Jimmie Johnson on the way to an historic fourth title he might actually be hurting the sport. It’s easy to turn off since he’s about to win it. How do you look at that? What do you say to people who say that Jimmie Johnson’s historic run is hurting the sport?
BRIAN FRANCE: “It is historic but we do have a culturally different double-standard that occurs. If this were any other sport, it would be more of a national story than it is. Our media tends to reward various drivers for winning and so on and so forth and close competitive finishes, not necessarily dominant performances. That’s not the case in most coverages of national sports. Those are just cultural things that we have to … over many, many years have to overcome but his run in the record books is historic and we’re real proud of him.
Mad Mikie: Double standard? You’re a fine one to be talking about double standards Your Royal Highness. A driver has a car out of tolerances and the crew chief gets suspended for 6 weeks, team has points docked, and they’re fined yet you have another car out of tolerances and nothing happens to that driver or team. Nothing. No points docked, no fines paid, and no crew chief suspended. Our media isn’t the only one that rewards winners or players for their work. It happens in every sport. And how about the criticism the Yankees have had over the last few years for their spending tons of money to get players? That doesn’t exactly fit your case. They’re winners but have been criticized. I can remember winning football teams being criticized, winning golfers being criticized, winning hockey teams being criticized. So for a winner to be criticized is nothing new. Of course, in other sports, you don’t have behind the scenes manipulation going on either unlike NA$CAR.
Q: I’m sure a question fans would have is that as we get to the end of the season are you doing to do anything with the car in Cup?
BRIAN FRANCE: No.
Mad Mikie: Of course you aren’t going to change the “world’s most perfect race car”. It doesn’t matter that it cost more than the old car did. It doesn’t matter that all the cars look alike except for their decals. It doesn’t matter that it has more aero problems than the old car. And after Newman’s wreck, folks are starting to question the safety aspects of what was described by some drivers as a tank. It also doesn’t matter that the car has made the races boring either. Your plans to change it in 2011 is too little, too late.
Q: I guess the other question is are you going to find a way to de-Johnson-proof the Chase?
BRIAN FRANCE: De-Johnson-proof the Chase (he laughs at that).
Mad Mikie: Are you laughing because he said “Johnson”? Did you take that as some juvenile humor?
Q: Car and Chase, do you foresee anything for next year?
BRIAN FRANCE: Well, we’re going to look at it obviously. We are having our roundtable discussions (with team executives – they just had meetings 2 weeks ago with team members) which came out of our Town Hall meetings in May and so that’s a good process to have for us. To be able to talk directly outside of the race track with everybody in the industry that works on cars and has an interest in it. That’s good. There will be some ideas that will come out to make the racing better. I don’t know what they’ll be. They may not be very large scale.
Mad Mikie: You need to seriously look at the play-off system Your Highness because it isn’t working like your hype said it would. You also need to have a serious look at the Car of Woe too. Let the crew chiefs do what they do best. Let the teams experiment like they use to in the past with gears, shocks, springs, and engine packages. In the past, folks have offered ideas to improve the car and the sport only to have them fall on deaf ears. So how about actually listening for a change and actually implementing some of the suggestions?
Q: One last thing, how do you feel about the Chase looking over it’s whole history. Obviously the first year gave you everything you wanted but the margin has grown since. How do you feel about the Chase?
BRIAN FRANCE: No question that we would prefer to have it come down like it did the first year where more than one driver and certainly probably three or four would really have a shot going down the stretch. Jimmie Johnson, we could not have forecasted or predicted how dominant he would be. It’s virtually impossible to do what he’s doing in this format or any format. He is just incredibly dominant and so you can’t change a format because somebody has just been so dominant. You’ll go up against your own creditability when you start doing that. So you have to be, I think, measured in how you respond to wanting to get it like everybody else does. But you know, the Super Bowl doesn’t always get the two best teams. It doesn’t always get the last-minute finish of who is going to win. The World Series doesn’t always get the two best matchups or a seven-game series, which is what they would prefer and on and on it goes. That’s just the nature of ebb and flow of a national sport. We’ll look at that with those kinds of things to think about as we get down the road.’’
Mad Mikie: Had Johnson been penalized like he
should’ve been for his car being out of spec
according to your own rules, we’d have a much
closer points race. Folks wouldn’t have already
said Johnson had won the Chase for the Chumps.
The format itself was half-cocked to begin with.
You should’ve taken the entire play-off format
used by the Hooters Pro Cup Series and used
that. At least then the championship play-off
would give just about everyone an even shot at it.
But no, that would mean you’d have to give
somebody else credit for the play-off system.
Lord knows we can’t have that. So we’re stuck
with this half-baked system that doesn’t work as
advertised. In other sports, you sometimes have
the two best teams playing for the championship. Sometimes you have the two luckiest teams playing for the championship. Even in golf, the best players didn’t bother showing up for the play-off system and they still won the championship. You need to either fully adopt the Hooters Pro Cup Series play-off system or go back to the old system. And quit playing favorites with your penalties and Ms Terry DeBris cautions. Face it Your Majesty, we fans aren’t as stupid as you might believe.
God bless the folks at Ft Hood and their loved ones.
Motherhood, Apple Pie, and John Wayne
Mad Mikie, Curmudgeon at Large
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