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NASCAR caught in Trump crossfire again – Orlando Sentinel
HOMESTEAD – Donald Trump is making NASCAR controversial again.
Brian France, NASCAR’s top executive, took a combative stance as he fended off a question about his endorsement of Donald Trump during the recent presidential campaign while stressing his own efforts in promoting diversity in racing.
“I’ll stop you right there,” France said, interrupting Dustin Long of NBC Sports. “First of all, nobody wants to hear my political views. So I won’t be talking about that,” France said before shifting focus on the Drive For Diversity program that sent Monterrey, Mexico, native Daniel Suarez on his way to winning the championship of the Xfinity Series on Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“And my efforts there should never be challenged, no matter what my political views might be. That’s a ridiculous thing to do.”
France, NASCAR’s chairman and CEO, endorsed Trump during the primaries, saying: “He wins with his family. Any of his children, you’d be proud of have them as part of your family. That’s how I judge a winner, how somebody manages their family and raises their family.”
France’s endorsement of Trump was called a “private personal decision” by a NASCAR spokesperson, reiterating that it was not a NASCAR endorsement.
In other business matters, France also shrugged off declining attendance and TV ratings as part of the shifting reality in sports as he put a positive spin on a season that concluded Sunday without an announcement of a new title sponsor for its premier racing series.
France said he is likewise pleased with the well-being of NASCAR and the Chase format despite a significant dropoff in crowds and TV audience this season. Going into Sunday’s Sprint Cup finale, 13 of 14 races (not including rain interruptions) have either had record low ratings or the lowest in more than a decade.
“Yeah, you’re seeing TV ratings slide all over the place in sports, right? France said. “The big events, they go one way, the digital audience is consuming things different. We’re no different from that.
“Attendance has been fine. We’ve come off weather issues like we did in Phoenix a year ago. We don’t have Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt. Needless to say, there’s going to be a little impact there.”
Sunday’s season finale was sold out for the third consecutive year. But with Tony Stewart, another veteran driver with a huge following retiring, and Sprint also ending its sponsorship after 13 years, uncertainty looms at the top level of stock car racing.
The most recent rumor has Monster Energy Drink as a leading candidate to become the title sponsor for the series. But the issue has remained unresolved for nearly two years since Sprint revealed it was ending the partnership.
“It’s taken a little longer than I thought, but it’s also a big agreement and an important agreement,” France said. “It’s not just dollars and cents, but it’s a fit for us. We don’t want to announce anything certainly around this weekend. We’re in a good spot with that, I believe, but we’ll have to see how it finally plays out.”
Asked if he believes the Chase elimination is resonating with racing fans, France pointed to the dramatic conclusions in the truck and Xfinity series this weekend as the result of expanding the Championship 4 system to those two secondary circuits.
“Wouldn’t change a thing,” he said. “Go back a year ago for the Xfinity Series. I don’t fault them, but you had the winner and the champion and a couple others talk about all they needed to do was finish the race.
“Speed it up to this year, you had all four, 1-2-3-4 thinking they got to win the race, forget about finishing. That’s a big deal for auto racing. We’re bold enough to do that.”
As for applying boldness to evolving the sport in a changing entertainment landscape, France has spoken about shifting emphasis to digital and social media as well as virtual reality to enhance the fan experience and viewer interest.
“The audience isn’t going away at all. It’s sliding to different places, consuming in different ways,” he said. “I would tell you some other leagues that have 30-percent dropoffs, they didn’t lose 30 percent of their audience from one moment to the next, that audience is just sliding and consuming in some different ways. Our digital consumption is off the charts.”
While France insisted, “I’m happy with the health of the sport,” all is not well with all of the teams, with indications of some dropping cars and laying off employees.
“That’s throughout our history. Not abnormal at all,” France said.
“Would I obviously like to have, you know, everything perfect? Of course I would. But that’s sports.”
Craig Davis of the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel contributed to this report.
George Diaz can be reached at gdiaz@orlandosentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgediaz