Brian France Talks State of NASCAR

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- NASCAR Chairman Brian France held an impromptu news conference Friday at Homestead Miami Speedway, addressing topics from NASCAR's legal battle with driver Jeremy Mayfield, to shortening the schedule, to the Chase for the Championship format and the possibility of Danica Patrick coming to NASCAR.

Generally speaking and considering the poor state of the economy, France said he's pleased with the season although he'd love to have fuller fields of cars carrying more corporate sponsorship and better television ratings. He said the COT is here to stay and he doubts NASCAR will start shortening the lengths of races.

Here are excerpts from France's meeting with reporters.

On Jeremy Mayfield's court case against NASCAR, which is becoming increasingly personal and bitter: "We believe we made the right decisions to make an already tough policy ever tougher. Very imperative that we prove our policy, which we did. ...

"I will say it this way,'' France continued, "I've had a lot of experience with trial lawyers -- more than I'd like -- and with trial lawyers I've never been surprised what they would say to help someone they're representing. Nothing surprises me about trial lawyers. Our preference is never to be in litigation, we make rules and hope people will abide by them. ''

*On Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway racing: "A lot of things in my view were misrepresented, but regardless, we had an exciting race. I know a lot of people will debate that, but we always look carefully at Talladega in the fall to see what changes we may need to make for the following Daytona 500. What usually comes out of Talladega is what adjustments we'll make headed to Daytona.

"There's no question that Talladega and Daytona are our two highest-rated races. We've got to make sure racing is safe, then make sure it's typical Talladega and Daytona racing.''

*On teams attracting sponsorship: "Our cost structure is a function of the free market and what's available at the time. You're always going to have teams that are underfunded, that's not anything new. My sense is it is difficult, but it will be fine. We're starting to see the ice thawing on that a little. We still have the best value proposition in sports. It's still the only way a company can brand on the playing field, the way we do.''

*On current testing limitations: "There is some perfect balance between some testing and no testing at all. We chose to go the route of cost-saving, knowing there are some consequences. As we dial it back as the economy gets better, I don't think we'll dial it back to where it was years ago, but we'll be dialing as we go watching the economy.''

*On Chase format: "With this format to dominate four straight years, is incredible. We could not predict anyone would have the performance Jimmie (Johnson) has had. It's all about how you look at it, but obviously we look at adjustments to the format every year anyway and we'll be looking at that. But the premise of the Chase, the history, the performance in the Chase dictates how it plays out.

"Every sport would have the same dilemma of watching some dominant performances occur at the expense of smaller teams or others. How do you get to the perfect world? All I can say is this is historical, an incredible achievement Jimmie is putting forward and that's what's before us.

"Any models that we did, never had someone getting dominant just at the right time. It's not a formula on the computer, it's about sports, it's live and it's about who performs at a high level. Ultimately, that's what we look at in deciding what's a good outcome and what isn't."

*On shortening the 36-race schedule: "It's easy to think that (we should shorten schedule) this late in the year, but you have to take a step back and look at it. We don't have the volume other sports have. We don't have 30-40 games a week. We have one big event, per series, per week. When you start dialing that back it has a lot of effects. There's great value in having events happen once a week that outweigh dialing back or taking events off the schedule.''

*On Danica Patrick: "She has obviously taken a very hard look at this sport and is a very accomplished driver in her own right. I would love to see her compete in the highest form of racing in the world, if she does ... as they say that's why they play the game. I don't know how well she'll do. She has a lot of talent. She would be good for NASCAR. How well she performs is just like any driver, you never know until you try.

"She's certainly very welcome in NASCAR and I've told her that directly and I know others have as well.''