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New France
NASCAR's CEO wants to make a change in testing
AP File Photo
Greg Zipadelli (left), crew chief for Tony Stewart, says that NASCAR needs to allow testing at the tracks on which the teams actually race, using the actual tires.
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Published: July 6, 2008
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The new Brian France?
Well France, the stock-car racing CEO, third generation, is suddenly quite visibly engaged and taking an increasingly aggressive stance on the public-relations front during the past six weeks, in what is clearly a new higher-profile campaign for the family sport; and perhaps for France as well.
And it couldn't have come at a better moment -- with the economy roiling, fans sweating out $4 a gallon gas, weekend sellouts no longer a given, and the winged car still a noticeable drag on competition.
It's not just France on the attack; he's got his troops out in the field too, like Jimmie Johnson, who this week will meet the Washington media corps at the National Press Club, in the shadow of the White House. Expect more NASCAR stars on those front lines in coming weeks.
And France said he's issued invitations to both Barack Obama and John McCain to attend NASCAR races this season as part of their presidential campaigns.
Is this France's finest hour?
His performance here on Friday afternoon was certainly one for the books. France was not only pinpoint perfect on each topic -- from drug testing to that discrimination lawsuit and diversity issues, to Detroit's woes, to that still awkward winged car -- he was cool and confident in his delivery, in complete command, and exuding the decided sense that this guy really is in charge of things and not just a figurehead, that this guy does have the reins of this sport and is doing his best to keep the horses running in the right direction.
It has been something of an unexpected turnaround. France, during his years at the helm, has been criticized for not appearing more often at the tour's tracks, for not politicking with the bigwigs like his father did, and for seeming at times to be a distant figure, above the fray.
So if this is the new Brian France, bold, aggressive and clearly in charge, it is a very welcome change. It's also quite timely, just as the worries and grumbles in the NASCAR garage and up in the stands are on the increase.
Plus, this comes as NASCAR hits the big cities on its annual summer cross-country swing -- San Francisco two weeks ago, Boston last week, then Chicago, Indianapolis, then New York City-Philadelphia again, and Montreal.
France, 45, has long been engaged in things, but too much behind the scenes. Where his father and grandfather were guys who could roll in the mud with the best of them, Brian France has worked hard to portray a highly polished image. Too polished, at times.
But now, five years into his role as boss of the family empire, Brian France may finally be feeling comfortable down here in the trenches too.
France wants a testing change
One of France's new initiatives is a change in pre-race testing. But it's a calculated move to increase the sport's profile in the markets in which it plays.
And if France is sharp, he'll make that move effective immediately, not just to help beleaguered crew chiefs and frustrated drivers get in some "real" laps at the right tracks, but to help those struggling promoters who need all the help they can get selling tickets. He could start by ordering a test next week at Indianapolis, for the ABC-ESPN season kickoff later this month.
When NASCAR officials first raised the possibility last week of dramatically changing testing rules for next season, there was a big gasp among crew chiefs.
Actually NASCAR should have opened up testing last year, and maybe that would have kept teams and manufacturers from having to go down the expensive path of computer simulations, with those seven-post-shaker rigs.
What's the feeling in the garage about a new testing policy?
Robbie Loomis, who runs Petty Enterprises, said "If we're going to spend this much money testing, the question is how can we maximize the $100,000 we're spending for each test to get the most out of it?"
Loomis said he'd be in favor of changing testing rules immediately. "We've tested 33 times already this year, we're going to test another 30 days the second half of the season, and we're just a small team.
"So if we're going to be testing like that, I'd much rather be testing at the places we're really going to race, instead of at the Nashvilles and Kentuckys.
"Indianapolis would be a great place to test because tires are sometimes an issue there, and these new cars are a lot harder on right fronts."
Greg Zipadelli, Tony Stewart's crew chief, said it's all simple: "We need to go to the real race tracks with the real race tires.
"There should be some type of limited testing, but we should be able to go to the tracks we chose to, to do whatever my driver needs to do to get better. And they can do like they used to, and close track testing seven to 10 days before the race.
"We don't need to be going to Vegas and California every year (those are tradition January testing stops, as much for pre-race promotion and marketing as for testing).
"Some people need to go to a road course like Sonoma; some need to go to Martinsville and Charlotte.
"We need some one-day tests and some two-day tests, maybe three-day tests. We each need 20 to 30 testing days each year…
"Look, if we're going to New Smyrna Beach two or three times a year right now, and we can instead go to Loudon just once, we can not only learn more but it will raceually cost less overall.
"Sure, it is tough on the smaller teams, but if we all had more days at the right tracks with the right tires I think it would clearly help the teams that don't have all the computer simulation equipment."
They can do some good old-school testing. It will help the Robby Gordons of the sport.
"And I can certainly see where more open testing would be beneficial both to NASCAR and track promoters.
"Yes, more open testing has its pros and cons, but I think it would be better than what we have now. I sure hope it changes."
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Loomis said NASCAR should require teams to test only with their Sunday drivers, not substitutes: "For us here at Petty Enterprises, the one thing that could help us the most is to be able to test more.
"And yet if you ask me what's the biggest single thing we've wasted money on this year, it's testing at places like Kentucky, Iowa, Lakeland, because you can't apply that much of what you learn if you're not really racing at those tracks. Plus we're having to use different tires, and sometimes different drivers.
"I think we should have the opportunity to test at every track we race at. So we need at least 22 days, for the 22 race tracks we run. It's all about building up our computer simulation models; that's where the sport is really going.
"I would also want NASCAR to require that each team's driver himself have to do the test, not some substitute driver. Because for us to maximize the money we're spending on testing as a company, it helps us to have ‘the' driver with us. But then the problem you get is some of these guys just don't want to go test. I don't want my driver telling me he's not going to go test.
"When I was with a four-car team a few years ago (Rick Hendrick), I wasn't looking at things from the other side of the fence. But now that I'm here with a two-car team -- trying to grow to three cars, and Chip Ganassi just cut his three-car team back to two -- I think we need more rules in place to help us get on the road to four, rather than rules that let four-car teams get stronger and stronger.
"A big reason teams went to three-car teams and four-car teams was because of testing -- they could test more. Even if there is a seven-test limit, they can still test more.
"So I think NASCAR should focus on limiting the number of testing days per organization. We run at 22 race tracks, and for us to have an equal opportunity we need to have drive-files (computerized) from all those tracks, so we can do our computer simulation tests. If we can have that, it evens things up, whether you're a two-car team or a four-car team.
"I think NASCAR should definitely limit the number of testing days for each organization, rather than for each team."
So Petty Enterprises would get, say, 22 testing days each year, and Roush Racing's all five teams would also only get 22 testing days?
"Exactly," Loomis said. "And I think NASCAR is looking at it from that light.
"One thing we fight when we go to sponsors is they all want to be part of a four-car team. And the sport is structured so those four-car teams get stronger and stronger.
"So NASCAR can take this opportunity, with testing, to find some scales of balancing.
"I would be strongly for NASCAR to limit testing to just Tuesdays and Wednesdays…because it is so hard on the teams and the drivers when they have to do a Monday test after a Sunday race.
"If we could test at the specific track 10 days or so before the actual race, that would be fine.
"We've got this new car, and we don't have a lot of data built up on it, not like we had with the old car. I'm sure NASCAR is concerned about the direction we're in with this new car right now…..so this is a nice way of them saying ‘Let's all go out there and test and make the shows better.'
"Right now sometimes it's like we're going in circles with what we're testing, because maybe we're testing at Nashville (for the Dover) race but with a different tire, and when we get to the track we're out in left field."
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But bigger rivals already have full-fledged testing teams on the road weekly, and even open testing wouldn't slow that. Loomis has Billy Wilburn running Petty Enterprises' testing team, but compared to the testing operations that Rick Hendrick and Jack Roush have in place "we're not even halfway there," Loomis said.
On the other side of the picture is the Roush operation. Crew chief Greg Erwin, who has been on both sides of this world, with independent owner-driver Robby Gordon and with mega-owner Roush and driver Greg Biffle, said no matter testing rules NASCAR does come up with, "somebody is not going to be happy.
"You're asking to please a lot of people, in a very, very difficult situation: What's best for the big, heavily funded teams, and what's best for the more lightly funded teams.
"Remembering how difficult it was to keep up, when I was with Robby, I'd say that the more testing NASCAR allows, the more it's going to help the bigger teams. They just have more people to throw at it, more cars, more people to look at all the data.
"The flip side is the smaller teams, if they were structured well, would get a lot more out of those tests, because it would be a lot more efficient.
"If Greg and I could test as much as we wanted to next season, how many tracks would we test? About 15. And that would be about every other week. At least.
"This year we've run the seven official NASCAR tests, and we've been on day-trips to Milwaukee, Kentucky, Caraway, Road Atlanta, and we've got a full-time testing team that goes out and tests ‘concepts' for us to consider.
"If NASCAR opened up testing, Greg and I would spend more time on the road than we have this year. But probably not twice as much."
Biffle himself said "a perfect scenario, a win-win for everybody in the whole sport, is to give each organization five tests, or six or seven, whatever the number. Then they can test whenever they want, however they want, 10 days before.
"That way Hendrick has five tests, Roush Fenway has five tests, Ganassi has five tests. And it doesn't matter if you have five cars, two cars, four cars. Everybody gets to go to five tracks; they can pick what five they want.
"The old test policy was per car, so a guy with five teams could go to 25 tracks. That wasn't fair."
Before submitting their ideas officially to NASCAR, Erwin said all the Roush crews "are still debating the whole issue within our organization -- what we think we can handle, what we think would work best, what we think NASCAR might go with.
"If we said we feel every team should get 15 tests, then NASCAR might say, ‘Well, you've got five teams, so that's 75 tests, and that would be unfair.'
"NASCAR is trying to do the right thing, but that's going to be hard."
And forget that idea of opening each track a day earlier, for testing, Erwin said: "That may sound great, but we're not looking to spend another 36 days a year on the road. Plus, nobody wants to be testing one day with the car they'll have to push through the tech room the next day, because it's hard enough right now to get these things through that room anyway."
■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.
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