Changes for 2012 NASCAR season are big, but less visible

Changes for 2012 NASCAR season are big, but less visible

Jan. 26, 2012

By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France has reason to be optimistic.

France was upbeat Thursday during the annual "state of the sport" press conference at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the last stop on the four-day NASCAR Sprint Media Tour presented by Charlotte Motor Speedway.

In November, Tony Stewart ended Jimmie Johnson's five-year stranglehold on the Sprint Cup championship in a dramatic battle between two drivers -- Stewart and Carl Edwards -- at the absolute pinnacle of their craft.

The Chase for the Sprint Cup captivated fan interest until the final lap of the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with Stewart and Edwards finishing 1-2 in the last race and Stewart claiming the title in a tiebreaker based on number of victories.

Even before the spectacular finish to the season, television ratings had begun to rise across all three of NASCAR's national touring series. That's encouraging news, given that NASCAR will be negotiating with its broadcast partners over television contracts, with current agreements ending after the 2014 season.

At the November awards banquet in Las Vegas, Sprint announced a three-year extension of its title sponsorship of NASCAR's top series, through 2016. During a succession of stops on the media tour, such organizations as Penske Racing, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and JTG-Daugherty Racing announced the acquisitions of new sponsorships for their racing efforts.

Accordingly, there will be no tweaks to the Chase this season, no modification to the wild-card rule that kept interest at peak levels through the September race at Richmond, when the field for the Chase was set.

There will be no further simplification of the points system, which was overhauled last year. France also was well satisfied with the "pick-a-series" approach that prohibits drivers from competing for a championship in more than one series.

The first year of that approach produced popular champions in both the Nationwide Series (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) and Camping World Truck Series (Austin Dillon). For the previous five seasons, full-time Cup drivers had claimed the Nationwide title.

Don't be fooled, though, by the absence of sweeping, high-profile changes. Though the introduction of Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) won't be visible on the racetrack, it is a profound advancement that gives racecars a technology much more akin to that found in cars available on the showroom floor.

"NASCAR worked closely with the engine builders and manufacturers and enlisted the support of world‑class technology partners like Freescale (software provider) and McLaren (manufacturer of the electronic control units) to implement the new electronic fuel injection in the Sprint Cup Series, beginning this season," France said.

France also acknowledged that the long-term plan is to bring EFI to the Nationwide and Truck Series, though NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton indicated that, by then, the platform may be different. To that point, there are those in the Cup garage who believe that the implementation of EFI is an intermediate step toward direct injection, which is state-of-the-art in street cars.

Tested extensively during the 2011 season, EFI will be in place in the Cup series for the Daytona 500. And then there's the change NASCAR hopes will be in place. France says the sanctioning body remains committed to breaking up the two-car drafting prevalent at the restrictor-plate tracks (Daytona and Talladega) in response to overwhelming feedback from fans who prefer the more traditional pack drafting.

"We've made clear we're working hard to find rules packages that break up the tandem racing at Daytona and Talladega and return it to a more traditional style of racing on those superspeedways," France said.

"We've had a breathtaking number of close finishes at those tracks, but the fans want a mixture of styles, including a return to that more traditional, more pack racing and that close side‑by‑side competition that's unique to Daytona and Talladega. NASCAR and the teams are working hard at this, and based on the test earlier this month at Daytona, we're encouraged that we're making progress."

France affirmed that fines to drivers for questioning the integrity of the sport -- such as those levied in secret against Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman and Brad Keselowski -- now will be announced publicly. That policy dovetails more closely with the custom of other professional sports.

"In terms of going public with it, we were frankly . . . we didn't have a real strong position on that," France said. "It seemed to bother some people in November when we talked about this (after Keselowski was fined for comments about the value of EFI).

"We didn't feel strongly. That's something that people think is a good thing, so we were happy to do it."

Development also will continue on the new racecars for 2013. Ford unveiled its new Fusion on Tuesday, with Toyota, Dodge and Chevrolet set to debut their new products later this year.

Whether through town hall meetings with its teams or in response to issues raised by the media or in focus groups of fans, NASCAR has embarked on a path of unprecedented responsiveness, and the attitude of cooperation is paying dividends.

"The sport is in a very good place right now, no question about that, and we're working hard and even harder to achieve the very best things for the sport of NASCAR well into the future," France said. "We expect to have another highly competitive battle for the championship this year with our biggest stars and many new faces in the mix."