BRIAN FRANCE
BRIAN FRANCE: Obviously we are very excited about coming down to the last race with a tight battle. Some observations I did want to share with you, and I've been doing this a long time, and our family has been doing this a long time.
But what's really clear to me, is when you put drivers in a position where there's a lot on the line, and they just can't have a good position, and they actually have got to go out and win or lead laps or compete high, they do it. And I think you're seeing that the last several weeks; that the best drivers all year, a whole bunch on the line, and they are dominating these races going back and forth. And I bet that's the case on Sunday.
So that tells us that the more we can do, to have incentives -- an incentive-basis and decide this championship, that puts it all on the line more often, that's what we need to be thinking about. And it's just great to see these performances. These are guys talking about: I've got to win today; I've got to get out there and I'm not looking for a good finish; I'm looking to lead every single lap and on and on and on.
That's what we want to have in the environment of this sport and the atmosphere, and so that is also a function of I think us pulling back at the beginning of the year, the 'Boys, Have At It' and so on, and letting the drivers mix it up a bit differently; not over-regulating the sport, so that certainly has played a role. And will play maybe a role on Sunday. They will mix it up. They have been mixing it up.
We are obviously very pleased about that. I know we'll talk about TV ratings or attendance and the economy, and I'll just cover some of that so we don't have to go through that in the discussions.
Obviously we would like our TV ratings on an upswing, and when they are not, we are working on all kinds of things to look and see what is a better formula for us. Clearly we moved start times back, to accommodate our race fans at the at-track experience. We did that. We also did that to uniform start times between the East Coast and the Midwest and the West Coast.
We took ourselves out of some more homes by doing that; also by switching networks on ABC to ESPN. So we did some things to try to help in one area that might have had an effect in another. So we'll be looking at all of those things in the off-season.
Obviously when we would like to do is have the kind of story lines, the kind of attention, that captures the most fans. So that goes without saying. We are working on it all the time, and that's where we are on that.
But I will say that the quality of racing, going back to the beginning of the season with the different rules packages that we put forward, primarily the spoiler, reintroducing that, has worked well. I think the fact that we are so far into the cycle of, it's not the new car anymore, it's the car; and various other little things that we did, all have come together to give us -- if this isn't the best racing we've seen in a long, long time, I think I would be very surprised to hear anybody say that it wasn't.
So with that, I'll be happy to take some questions.
Q. Brian, you said I guess in July that you would take a hard look at the Chase. Now that it's shaped up this year the way it has and you've got this finale and guys sort of eliminated themselves and you do have this winner-take-all scenario on Sunday, what do you do, do you still go into the off-season saying you have to look at this or do you leave things alone?
BRIAN FRANCE: No, we will look at it. What I like is, what I said earlier, a winner-take-all, if you will; and watching someone not just have to run well, but have to beat some other people. That is feeling to us like that's exactly what we want.
And by the way, it's exactly what the drivers want. It's working out that way this year. We are in year seven of the Chase.
Let me say this. Right almost every sports league, almost everyone, including the NCAA Tournament last year, is looking around at what they need to do to change their formats a little or a lot, depending on who they are, to make sure that their playoffs or their championship runs are what they want them to be. And we are no different.
It's that time of the year where these are the kind of questions that we get. We understand that we are going to have a championship that puts a lot on the line as it does now. That's credible, and rewards the drivers that have the biggest performances throughout the season, and whatever we might consider, we'll accomplish that.
But, hey, first thing's first. You know, we are not going to look ahead to 2011 till this weekend is concluded because this could be a very, very memorable Sunday.
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