Nascar Race Today

France's approach is gaining respect after he battled perceptions of being disengaged and unworthy

It was his 10-year anniversary as NASCAR's CEO, but Brian France was in no mood to celebrate.

Instead, he was the focus of a hastily called news conference on Sept. 13 at which he assured outraged fans that the sport was taking drastic measures to address the most tainted finish in its history, starting with the extraordinary addition of a 13th driver in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The move came after Michael Waltrip Racing was ruled to have manipulated the race at Richmond International Raceway - the cutoff to set the field for the 10-race title playoff - by ordering one of its drivers to take a dive by pitting under the green flag, along with radio chatter that raised suspicion of foul play by other teams.

A day later, on the eve of the championship playoff, France summoned team owners, drivers and crew chiefs to a Chicagoland Speedway infield garage, where he read them the riot act for 20 minutes and brusquely outlined new rules governing integrity. He took no questions.

With NASCAR's premier series embroiled in an unprecedented credibility crisis from the scandal in Richmond, France unleashed the iron-fisted fire and brimstone that were a hallmark of the previous regimes of his father and grandfather.

"I was angry, frankly, at the circumstances that got us to that point," France, 51, told USA TODAY Sports. "I was determined we were going to deal with it and not have this happen again."

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It was a rare instance in which the third-generation scion departed from his understated and collaborative management style, which eschews the spotlight even as it often invites scrutiny. Though it bears little in common with the authoritative and omnipresent methods favored by his predecessors who guided NASCAR from 1948-2003, there are signs France's approach is gaining respect after he battled perceptions of being disengaged and unworthy.

From TV deals that have lined NASCAR's coffers with more than $12 billion to a diversity thrust finally bearing some fruit - in October, Darrell Wallace Jr. became the first black driver to win in a NASCAR national series in nearly 50 years - to an increased focus on green technologies, France is reshaping the sport in the interest of 21st century relevance as it continues to recover from the recession that battered its sponsorship, race attendance and TV ratings.

Powerful owner Rick Hendrick, whose teams have won 10 Sprint Cup championships, said France was a guiding force through the Richmond debacle and has fulfilled the promise predicted for him by Bill France Jr., who died in 2007, four years after abdicating the stock-car throne to his only son.

"I think Brian's done a super job being the CEO of the company for a lot of reasons," Hendrick told USA TODAY Sports. "I'm not sure his dad, Billy, would have trusted anybody else to make those kind of moves but Brian. When I would talk to Brian even back when Billy was alive, Brian already was thinking about what we need to do in the future."

Yet questions remain - even within corners of NASCAR, France concedes - about the depth of the CEO's commitment and understanding of a business that "is much broader than most people realize," he said.

It might be that the sport's sprawling landscape - in which the conflicting interests of fans, sponsors, teams and series officials sometimes seem to be locked in an endless tug of war - makes universal acceptance impossible.

"I think there's still skepticism about Brian, and I don't get it," Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage said. "After 10 years, you'd think it should be resolved. I like Brian and don't necessarily agree with everything he does, but that's OK.

"I think if you're in charge of NASCAR, you kind of need everybody to be off balance all the time because it's like wrestling an alligator. Once you get the head, the tail whacks you. Wrestle the tail, the head bites you. You can never get everything under control."

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The most visible way in which France has overhauled the sport - the Chase for the Sprint Cup - will wrap up its 10th edition Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and it's a good example of how his fingerprints can be both positive and polarizing.

Though the Chase has produced consistently close points finishes (the Ford Ecoboost 400 will mark the ninth consecutive time the title is decided in the finale) and ratings are up in six of nine races this season, it remains a lightning rod of criticism from a hard-core fan base that speaks frequently and passionately on social media and on a satellite radio channel devoted to NASCAR.

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"I think the way to look at it is if we ever wanted to go back to the old system, there wouldn't be many people at all in favor of that," France said. "The most important thing is it elevates our competition and makes things more exciting."

His regime has weathered its share of high-profile stumbles. France readily admits one of his major mistakes was the heavy-handed rollout of the much maligned Car of Tomorrow. Yet the boxier car was part of a safety revolution - no driver has died in 12 years - and ultimately led to a more collaborative effort with manufacturers and teams that in 2013 produced an aesthetically pleasing successor, the Gen 6.

In the past year, France might have completed his greatest masterstroke - brokering deals with Fox and NBC through 2024 that are worth $8.2 billion and represent a 42% increase over the previous deal, despite ratings being down roughly 25% from their 2005 peak.

It's another example of how France, who spearheaded the move to consolidate races on network TV that quadrupled rights fees 12 years ago, has left his largest imprint on the NASCAR business model.

"That's a watershed for the sport," team owner Roger Penske told USA TODAY Sports about the TV deals. "I'd give him the credit for it. I think what Brian has tried to do is step away from the good old boy network in running NASCAR to what are the current requirements for the sport."

His focus now is on competition, specifically how to improve racing on 1.5-mile superspeedways while considering new formats for qualifying next year. It's a precursor to a potential major overhaul in 2015 - coinciding with NBC replacing ESPN in its return - that some believe could feature halftime breaks and heat races.

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The goal is to hook a digitally focused younger audience with shorter attention spans not well suited for three-hour races.

"I think Brian is going in the right direction because we can't continue with the NASCAR of the past," Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing minority owner Felix Sabates told USA TODAY Sports. "Don't be surprised if you see a completely new format. He's going to shake up the way racing is for the fans."

The Richmond debacle showed that France doesn't shy from controversial decisions, such as adding Jeff Gordon to the Chase. Though there was much debate among the NASCAR hierarchy, the call ultimately belonged to France.

"That's my responsibility," he said. "I just felt like that was the just thing to do. If you can make the right decision and not have ill effects against others, you ought to try to do that. That's what we did."

France requires that members of his executive team attend at least two sporting or entertainment events each year and return with feedback that can be applied to NASCAR. It's the hallmark of a CEO who calls himself "the biggest sports fan in the company" and sometimes hosts pickup basketball games with his employees.

"I go to the most games, and you do that by following the business side of things," he said. "What are (other sports) doing right to promote their players? As an industry, we tend to get a little isolated and don't have a broad enough worldview of what goes on beyond our sport and how it impacts us."

NASCAR president Mike Helton, a close confidante of France's father, said it's a much more "international" approach than NASCAR's prior leadership, noting that Brian France was among the first to push for a presence on the Internet and social media.

But he also is a much less visible presence at the track than his father and grandfather, who often were accessible whenever the garage was open. France runs NASCAR with the detachment of a Fortune 500 CEO rather than the mom-and-pop vibe of a family business. France attends about two-thirds of the events on the 36-race schedule. During the races that France misses, Helton said he always receives a call in the scoring tower from the CEO.

"Bill established his leadership as a very visible person because all that was developed when there were no cell phones, social media, email or any communication other than relying primarily on face-to-face contact," Helton said. "Brian is a leader in the modern-day world. If anything, the leadership of NASCAR has to manage somewhat Brian's passion for the details. He is as engaged as Bill Jr., it's just not as symbolically as visible. In some ways, he's more engaged."

Said Paul Brooks, a former NASCAR vice president: "Brian's era of leadership is a multibillion-dollar enterprise with significantly different business dynamics. If he spent all his time in the garage, it wouldn't be as successful."

France, though, does seem to be making a more concerted effort to connect with his stars. Defending series champion Brad Keselowski, who was chastised by France for wide-ranging criticisms of NASCAR in a preseason interview with USA TODAY Sports, said France has called him a half-dozen times since March to solicit his opinion on competition.

"It's something I've tried not to really talk about much in the media because I don't want it to be presented as such that he called me just to check a box," Keselowski said. "It was about strategies of where the sport is going, competition-wise, and what we could do to improve the racing across the board. So it's nice to have somebody that listens to that."

'Like where we're going'

Brian France, left, watches Brad Keselowski down a beer in victory lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway after Keselowski won the 2012 Sprint Cup championship last November.(Photo: Tom Pennington, Getty Images)

France spends much of his time listening and staying out of the spotlight, where he isn't a natural public speaker. But the owner of a couple of upscale restaurants also likes hob-nobbing with the power elite.

"I bet you he can call Bill Clinton, and he'd answer the phone," Sabates said. "He just doesn't talk about it. We all have a tendency to drop a name. Brian could, but he won't. He'd rather be wearing blue jeans and sweatshirt and be at a basketball game than in a suit at an awards ceremony."

"He's a lot like Bill Jr. was in that he enjoys relationships with other successful people," Helton said. "In doing that, Brian gets the opportunity to share thoughts and ideas with other business leaders and then Brian takes that dialogue and relates it back to NASCAR. He and Bill Jr. shared the ability to look around the corner, but Brian might look broader and deeper than Bill."

France, whose favorite CEOs are Jack Welch (for being relentless and courageous) and the late Steve Jobs (focused, innovative and instinctive), has been counseling nephew Ben Kennedy, who has shown interest in following his uncle into NASCAR. The 21-year-old son of Brian's sister, Lesa France Kennedy, also is pursuing a driving career.

"I told him it's great you're interested, but you need to figure out how will you add value?" Brian France said. "What's your mark to put on the family business? That's how I always looked at my situation. I was given an opportunity, but I needed to add value in ways that I could. You can't add value everywhere. So on the commercial side, I felt I could do better."

At a motorsports marketing forum five years ago, France made waves when he said he wouldn't be around for a 32-year run as his father had. The remarks helped reinforce the perception that he would move into team ownership in another sport. In 2005, he admitted to asking the NFL about its ownership structure, and he was willing to entertain pitches on pro sports franchises in his first few years in order to gather intel.

But when a group bidding on a Major League Baseball team called three years ago, France passed and hasn't explored any opportunities since.

Many expect the longer he stays, the less likely it becomes that he will leave, and Penske said, "I don't think we're at any risk we're going to lose him."

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"He may not be around as long as Bill, because Bill didn't have another life other than NASCAR, and Brian does," Sabates said. "But I'd say he'd be around another 10 years."

Said Hendrick: "I don't see him wanting to do anything else. He's too entrenched and engaged in the future. He's thinking about where to take this to the next level."

France still stays he won't match his father's longevity.

"I don't think the sport would be served well by that," he said. "But as long as we're making progress and it's enjoyable. It's not always enjoyable, but it's rewarding for me, and I'm able to make the right contribution at the right time. I'm not going to pick a date, but I like where we're going now."