In case you missed it, Brian France says there’s “some interest” among outside car makers to join NASCAR.
Yesterday, Dave Moody, host of SiriusXM Speedway, told the Chairman and CEO of NASCAR that he regularly gets calls from fans asking about any chance of Dodge returning to the sport or any other potential manufacturers joining Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota.
He didn’t name any specific manufacturers, but France said that there was “some interest” among other car makers.
“There is some interest by a couple of different manufacturers, and we would be open to that in the right conditions,” France said. “A lot of the car companies are understandably looking at the terrific job that Toyota has done by partnering with NASCAR and the success and all the things that come along with that.
“They’ve been an incredible success story for a car manufacturer looking to come into a sport that’s very difficult to come in, compete and win every weekend. But there’s interest and this is obviously the biggest opportunity in auto racing in North America and we would probably say the world, so it’s always on some attention span one way or the other.”
He also spoke about the Sprint Cup Series finish between Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick last week at Phoenix International Raceway.
“Another thing that we’ve talked about this week is the finish at Phoenix and the contact in that, and you’ve heard me say many, many times; that’s classic NASCAR racing when that happens, but it’s interesting to note that not all the drivers — present or past — would’ve made the move that Carl Edwards tried to do to get around Harvick, and they both did a great job.
“But that’s classic NASCAR. We expect that. Sometimes that’s misunderstood when I say that, but it’s a great example of that part of NASCAR when you’re late in the race, a little faster, you’re going to have some contact to either scrub off speed or move somebody around a little bit. Carl’s one of the best at that, and it gave us a great finish.”
On the search for a new entitlement sponsor in the Cup Series, France said it was going “good.”
“It’s the most coveted position in sports because of the rights that are granted,” he said. “We’ve got a good group of companies that are on our short list and so hopefully in the coming weeks or months, we’ll get to the right place on that.”
Asked about where NASCAR stands on Cup drivers in the XFINITY Series, France said it’s “a real strong debate, depending on which side you’re on.”
“Mark Martin, back in the day, was known to dominate that series known as the Busch Series back then,” France continued. “We’ve always had some of that. Kyle has just got a mastery of that division. On the other hand, it makes the younger drivers better. They get to compete with one of the best of the business every weekend. Obviously, we have a new championship Chase format that will reward the eventual champion in the end; it’ll have to be somebody other than Kyle. I can get on either side of it, but right now that’s the rules.”
