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Analysis: Wall Street Journal report raises questions about NASCAR leadership

A well-reported story in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal raises interesting questions about NASCAR’s leadership.

Mainly, should Brian France still be in charge?

Using four sources, the WSJ reported France, NASCAR’s chairman and CEO, sold his stake in NASCAR to other family members “more than a decade ago.”

“As a result, these people say, Mr. France essentially works for his sister (Lesa France Kennedy) and uncle (Jim France) even though he is NASCAR’s chief executive,” the WSJ reported. “That means he runs the sport on a day-to-day basis but is supposed to seek approval from Ms. Kennedy and their uncle for major changes.”

The WSJ said Brian France did not inform his sister — who is in charge of International Speedway Corp. — before enacting a policy against Confederate flags in the infield. The story also said Kennedy learned of her brother’s public endorsement of Donald Trump by watching the news.

By his own admission in the story, France said he only attended roughly half of the Cup races last season.

In addition, the WSJ reported France did not attend a crucial December meeting between “racing-team executives, drivers, track operators and TV executives” in Las Vegas.

So based on this reporting, we know NASCAR’s CEO makes rogue decisions, does not show up to the majority of the races and is not very engaged in key planning for the future — all while presiding over the biggest decline in the sport’s history (the WSJ said TV viewership is down 45%).

After the WSJ report, it also appears confirmed France does not own a stake in NASCAR.

Kind of crazy, huh?

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Digesting the Clash with Jordan Bianchi and Three Dumb Questions with Courtney Force

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In Episode 6 of the Untitled Jeff Gluck Podcast, SBNation.com’s Jordan Bianchi returns to help me break down the Clash and Daytona 500 qualifying. Plus, the debut of a new segment called “Three Dumb Questions” (around the 22-minute mark) featuring Courtney Force!

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The Top Five: Breakdown of The Clash at Daytona

Each week, I’ll provide some quick analysis of the race through a post called the Top Five — five notable storylines from the just-completed race. First up: The Clash at Daytona.

1. The two best plate racers in the event crashed on the last lap

When the white flag flew, it looked like Denny Hamlin — who swept last year’s Clash and Daytona 500 — would edge Brad Keselowski for the win, barring something crazy happening.

Well, something crazy happened.

Keselowski got a huge run (which doesn’t happen that often with this restrictor plate aero package) and Hamlin went down to defend, but it was too late. Keselowski was already there, and the cars made contact.

Hamlin told MRN his attempted block was ill-timed, and Keselowski seemed relatively cool about the incident.

“Well, it is the Clash and not the 500,” he said on pit road.

But then Keselowski’s jaw clenched and the muscles in his face tightened.

“I guarantee he knows — and everyone else who was watching today — that I’m going to make that move again,” Keselowski said. “And you better move out or you’ll end up wrecked.”

A few moments later, he said it again: “I know all the other drivers are back watching it today, and they know not to make that block on me again.”

Your move, everyone else.

2. Something is up with Hendrick cars in Turn 4 at Daytona

OK, what’s going on here? Jimmie Johnson twice spun in Turn 4, which continued a pattern of Hendrick Motorsports cars having trouble in that turn over the past year (Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliott spun out of Turn 4 last year).

After coming out of the care center, Johnson said he didn’t know — and, perhaps more telling, that the team had been so unconcerned about it that no one had discussed it prior to the race.

They certainly will be talking about it now. Johnson said he noticed Elliott looked loose in that turn as well.

One theory?

“The sun certainly sits on that edge of the track a little harder than anywhere else,” Johnson said. “We’ll take some notes and learn from those mistakes and applied that to the 500.”

3. Alex Bowman is a beast

With each opportunity he gets — and there aren’t that many on his schedule for 2017 — Bowman shows he deserves a chance to run a full Cup season in a good car.

No one wanted to help him during the Clash, and the other drivers treated him like a leper at times. At one point, it looked like Joey Logano might go with him — and then Logano went with the Joe Gibbs Racing cars again and Bowman fell all the way to the back of the field.

Bowman won the pole and almost won the race at Phoenix last year, then basically willed himself to a podium finish in the Clash. This guy will drive a great car some day and, at 23, he has time on his side.

4. Joey Logano is an underrated plate racer

Let’s not get too carried away here, because Logano wasn’t going to win the race until the leaders hit each other on the last lap.

But Logano has won three plate races in the last two seasons (2015 Daytona 500 and the Talladega fall race twice in a row), and now adds the Clash to his collection. When is he going to start getting mentioned alongside Keselowski, Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. as the best of the best on plate tracks? (I’m asking myself that question, by the way.)

Combined with Keselowski the puppet master, you’d better believe the Team Penske cars will bring a large threat to the JGR contingent next week.

5. Danica Patrick gets a good result

I’ll have to go back and watch the replay to see how Patrick ended up with a fourth-place finish, but she’ll certainly take any positive momentum she can get these days.

Her performance on the track has been below average compared to her teammates at Stewart-Haas Racing for a couple years now, and she hasn’t seemed like the restrictor-plate threat she was when she first emerged in the series.

Plus, there’s been that whole Nature’s Bakery lawsuit and the scramble to find a replacement sponsor just a month before the season.

So while a fourth doesn’t count for the official records, it’s a boost of momentum.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. will wait to sign contract extension

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s contract expires after this season, but he’s not in a hurry to sign an extension.

Earnhardt said the delay is not a sign he is ready to quit driving; rather, he just wants a couple months to figure out whether his health will allow him to continue racing beyond this season.

“When I got hurt last year and what I saw it put the company through….I don’t want to do that again,” he told a group of reporters Saturday. “So I want to get some races under my belt and get confidence in my health before I can commit to him. I don’t want to make any promises I can’t deliver on.”

Earnhardt said he thinks he can race for “a couple” more years, but — despite asking himself the question — hasn’t been able to put a date on exactly when he might stop (should his health allow him to keep going).

But one thing is for sure, he said: He’s racing because he wants to be at the track and has a passion to keep competing.

“It’s not going to be a lot of fun to retire,” he said. “You’ve seen a lot of people, athletes retire. It seems a very difficult press conference to have. When I’m ready to do that, I’ll be making that decision knowing it’s the right thing to do. When I’m ready to do it, it’s going to have to be done.”

 

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Social Spotlight: Austin Dillon

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This is the first edition of a new feature called the “Social Spotlight,” where I’ll spend some time asking people in the NASCAR industry about their social media usage.

First up: Austin Dillon. You can hear the full interview in the podcast at the bottom of this page, but below is a transcript for those who would rather read it (the transcript has been condensed and edited for clarity).

JG: Do you have any private social media accounts?

AD: I’m all public on everything. No private stuff. I used to have a Facebook, but don’t have one anymore (except) for the one RCR runs and I do Facebook Live videos from. But as far as Instagram and Twitter, it’s all me.

JG: Are you on Snapchat?

AD: No. I deleted Snapchat when I got engaged — even before that, when I got a girlfriend. I just didn’t think Snapchat was really for me. Didn’t need it. (Chuckles)

JG: So you associate Snapchat with the old days when it wasn’t as corporate.

AD: Yeah, and it’s kind of repetitive because Instagram has all the same stuff with the stories now. I just like the format of Instagram better than Snapchat. I do think Snapchat is a little less business-ey.

JG: If you could only keep one (form of social media), which would you go with?

AD: Instagram. I think people can really take cool pictures and do cool videos and you’ll see a lot of that out of my Instagram this year. I’ve got a guy I’m working with where we’re pretty much just posting videos of different things we do at the shop, away from the shop and kind of my personal life.

I’m into the video stuff a lot. We posted a pretty cool one the other day with Slugger (Labbe) and the guys coming out and drinking some Coca-Cola by a Grizzly cooler. So the partners we have…they like those videos and it gives them something they can put on their Instagrams.

JG: How much of the posts we see are from you and how many are PR-type posts?

AD: On Instagram and Twitter, they’re pretty much all me. Jackie (Franzil, his PR rep) does a really good job updating people on what’s going on with our Facebook. … I would say 75 percent of my social media is me.

I think the worst part of my Instagram and Twitter is my grammar errors, so I definitely check with my fiancee (Whitney Ward) and Jackie. I think the biggest thing for me is punctuation. I struggle with that.

JG: Do you show them before you tweet? Like, “Hey, honey…”

AD: It’s right on my phone. I just hand it over to (Whitney) and she’ll go over everything. Sometimes I’ll copy and paste and send it to Jackie (and say), “How’s this look?” Now my brother (Ty), he doesn’t spell check anything. So it’s pretty funny to watch him sometimes.

JG: Do you ever say, “Should I tweet this?” if something could be controversial?

AD: I have in the past. I haven’t had to do that much lately, because I pretty much know where I’m at and what I can say. I’m pretty honest if you ask me a question if I want to say something.

If you say something on TV, I think it hurts more than if you do it through your social media account. I’m not gonna say the word I want to say, but it’s a cop-out to do it on social media.

JG: So it’s more brave if you’re not hiding behind the keyboard, so to speak.

AD: Exactly. If you’re going to say something about somebody or to them, you go say it to them or do it (in an) interview. At least they know it a little differently than through a keyboard.

JG: How many times a day are you looking through Instagram?

AD: Quite a bit. I’m on Instagram a lot. I like looking through people’s stories. I’ve got some good buddies who are always doing stuff that I follow. And then Twitter, I like following Trump. He’s pretty entertaining. And (Conor) McGregor on Instagram, he’s not afraid to show the lavish (lifestyle) and I’m sure people think he’s cocky and out there, but I think he’s done a good job with his marketing stuff.

JG: Do you think the Trump Twitter style will make people less afraid to be…

AD: Honest? Yeah, I think so. I like his honesty. There’s human error in everything. What he’s trying to show everybody is you can be yourself and it’s OK. I think that’s why a lot of the people voted for him — they can kind of relate to him a little bit — the screw-ups he has and then the stuff he does right. He’s really morally a good person, I think. But it’s funny to see all the different tweets he lets go. Sometimes they’re not needed, but it’s a different way of doing politics.

JG: Everybody has haters on Twitter. How do you deal with that? I assume you see them, so you do you ignore them? Do you block them?

AD: I personally just block ‘em. If they say something I don’t like, I just block ‘em. I don’t give them a second chance, usually.

I did respond to one kid. He was going off, and I had a lot of people go off on him underneath (the tweet), so I saw the guys who were just roasting this guy. I actually commented back to him and said, “You don’t even know me. Why don’t you come to the (RCR) Museum and I’ll take you around the museum?”

That kind of turned the whole situation around, but I’ve learned if you try to do that with every one of them, it’s too much time. Some people want to take the time to get to know you, but some people just want to screw with you. They might not hate you, but they just want something to do and make fun of. So I kind of laugh at it or just block it, because I don’t want to see it.

I like the new Instagram, too, because you can actually put words that key off that don’t let it come up in your comments.

JG: Oh, I didn’t even know that.

AD: Yeah, it’s a little edit list. My fiancee showed me that. It’s pretty cool. So like if somebody calls me a “short midget rich kid,” I can type “short midget rich kid” in there and it won’t pop up.

JG: No kidding? So I can type, “Jeff Gluck is a loser” and no more comments like that will come up?

AD: No more comments of “Jeff Gluck is a loser.”

JG: That’s awesome! I learned something here.

AD: It’s under Edit somewhere. (Note: To find this feature, go to Settings on Instagram, then look for Comments and type in the keywords you don’t want under “Custom keywords.”)

JG: Do you think your skin has been getting thicker over the years, the more you do this?

AD: It’s been pretty good lately. If they’ve said something bad once, I’ve already (blocked them), so I don’t even know who the haters are anymore. I have people who are close friends of mine and they’re like, “Man, this guy is hating on you!” I’m like, “I don’t even know who you’re talking about.” So it doesn’t bother me at all and I haven’t seen a hate message in a long time. I think I kind of got the group who were after it.

And if a new one comes up, I delete it so quickly that I don’t even look at their name. I just block ‘em. I have Hater Vision on at all times.

JG: What do you think the future is in the garage for social media? I hear a lot of younger people are going away from Twitter. Do you get that sense at all?

AD: I do, but I feel like I get more news off Twitter than anything. I get updated on things quickly, especially with sports and politics. I can be updated really quick. Instagram is more of a personal thing. … I think Instagram is the future for your personal use, but for news, I think Twitter is going to kill it. You just can’t get anything faster than Twitter on news.

JG: Twitter has a mute function. I’ve muted people I follow in the past, because I don’t want to unfollow them and be a jerk, but I also don’t want to see their updates all the time. Have you ever muted anybody you follow?

AD: I just unfollow them. If you’re saying stuff I don’t really agree with, I just unfollow them. I’ve done it multiple times. Even my friends, if it’s someone I know but they’re talking about something I don’t agree with, I’ll just unfollow them.

JG: Have you ever had anyone say, “Hey dude! You unfollowed me?” after you did that?

AD: I might have had like one or two who said that, but I’m just like, “I don’t like what you’re saying.” I’m pretty open and honest with them. It doesn’t bother me, really. If they come back around and they really ask me, “Hey, will you follow me again?” I’d follow them back, probably.

JG: Sometimes drivers tend to get into social media feuds. Is it hard after a race to not vent your anger that way?

AD: (After) probably four or five races last year, I’d get out and want to tweet something or say something — and then type it out and not say it. Maybe I should be more open about it on those things, but I try and keep it to myself.

JG: How quickly after a race is your phone in your hand?

AD: Really quickly. And then mostly I’m checking fantasy football. If I had a bad day on the track and my fantasy football team lost, it’s usually a long ride home.

JG: Anything else you want fans to know about your social media use or your accounts?

AD: If you want to see real, personal stuff, Instagram will tie you closest to me right now at this time in my life. So follow me on Instagram if you want to see stuff behind the scenes at my house, hanging with my friends and that kind of personal stuff.

Dillon’s social accounts can be found at @AustinDillon3 for both Twitter and Instagram.

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The 12 Questions interview: 2017 Edition

Welcome to Year 8 (!!!) of the 12 Questions interviews. Each week, I ask a different NASCAR driver the same 12 questions (although they are changed each year, which means there have now been a total of 96 different questions).

With the help of Landon Cassill — the annual guinea pig for the questions who assists in giving me honest opinions about whether each one is dumb or not — I’ve finalized the 2017 edition just in time for the first interview (which is with Kyle Busch).

So before you see them in a post, here’s a peek at what they will look like this year.

  1. How much of your success is based on natural ability and how much has come from working at it?
  2. Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards have all retired in the last couple years. What’s your pitch for fans of theirs to become fans of yours?
  3. What is the hardest part of your job away from the racetrack?
  4. A fan spots you eating dinner in a nice restaurant. Should they come over for an autograph or no?
  5. What’s a story in NASCAR that doesn’t get enough coverage?
  6. Who is the last driver you texted?
  7. Do you consider race car drivers to be entertainers?
  8. What is your middle finger policy on the racetrack?
  9. Some drivers keep a payback list in their minds. Do you also have a list for drivers who have done you a favor on the track?
  10. Who is the most famous person you’ve had dinner with?
  11. What’s something about yourself you’d like to improve?
  12. Please answer a question from the previous interview.
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Column: NASCAR’s revamped penalty structure is an improvement

NASCAR is on a roll lately with making good decisions.

Yes, I’m serious. No, I’m not feeling sick. So far, 2017 has been positive for NASCAR’s leaders (although the season hasn’t started yet).

The latest changes, revealed in a rules bulletin Thursday afternoon, completely revamp the penalty structure. You know those P3 penalties and all that mess? Gone.

NASCAR is appearing to try and move away from midweek penalty announcements (which generated poor publicity for officials, drivers, teams and sponsors alike) by implementing a system which will address bad behavior (also known as cheating) immediately.

For example: Something that might have been a Tuesday or Wednesday penalty in the past will now be dealt with through one of several “deterrents” during the actual race weekend.

Here are my three favorite deterrents, ranked:

1. The loss of hard cards

This one is so delicious. Hard cards — or season credentials — are a huge deal in the NASCAR garage. Those who work at the track either have a hard card — which makes life so much easier, as you can cruise in and out of the garage with minimal scrutiny — or a paper credential, which is a headache.

Paper credentials suck because:

— You have to stand in line to get them, one person at a time, often while waiting for the credential trailer to open. It’s a major inconvenience if you are going to the track every week.

— You either have to wear them around your neck in one of those oversized credential holders (which would be totally embarrassing for a crew guy) or try to stuff it into your pocket and pull it out (with ID!) every time you go into the garage or out to pit road. Security has an eagle eye for paper credentials.

So if an entire team loses hard cards because of a failed inspection or something, it’s going to be like wearing a dunce cap for goofing off in school. Crew guys are going to catch total crap from other teams for this, and this humiliation might feel worse than their car starting at the rear of the field (which is also still on the list of potential penalties).

2. Inspection go-around

In the past, teams could fail one station during pre-qualifying or pre-race inspection, pull out of line, tweak the car a bit and try again.

Welp, not anymore.

This year, if a car doesn’t pass one of the inspection stations, the team will have to take it back to the garage, fix the problem and start inspection all over again! That is going to be a massive time loss, and it will undoubtedly cause some cars to completely miss qualifying and possibly even the start of some races.

You do NOT want that to happen to your team, which is exactly why NASCAR is making the rule in the first place. It’s not going to be unfair or the fault of an unpredictable laser station or anything like that, so don’t pay attention if teams cry foul when this happens.

Want your car to pass inspection? Cool, then just make sure it’s legal. If pushing the limits causes it to fail a station, then deal with the consequences.

3. Stop and go under green

As I mentioned earlier, the changes appear to be about dealing with infractions immediately. So let’s say a car had an illegal part or something and it was discovered in pre-race inspection. Previously, it might not be public at the time and the team could get a 10-point penalty a few days later.

But now NASCAR is going to try to deal with it right then. One of the options is a stop-and-go penalty under the green flag (which means coming to pit road, stopping in the pit box and leaving again) and depending on the track, it could cause a car to go down multiple laps.

Now, is this going to totally eliminate all of the midweek penalty announcements and headlines? Of course not, and NASCAR surely knows teams aren’t going to just stop trying to sneak by with tricks to get an advantage. But this is a smart change overall, and it should be interesting to see if Penalty Wednesdays are a little quieter this season.