NASCAR owners react to WSJ article on the state of the sport
Sunday, 26 February 2017
By Kelly Crandall
Some of NASCAR's most prominent team owners have taken exception to a recent Wall Street Journal article questioning the health of the sport and its leadership.
When asked about the story during a Toyota manufacturer's press conference Saturday, Joe Gibbs gave the most passionate response. Revealing that he had been interviewed for the story, Gibbs said not one of the comments he made was published.
"What was brought up in that article is that the management team, Brian France, Lesa (France Kennedy, CEO of International Speedway Corporation) and everybody, it's hard for them to make good decisions, fast decisions," Gibbs said. "I think nothing could be farther from the truth."
Gibbs noted how much change has occurred across the sport, such as the addition of the playoffs, charters, and now stage racing. He added that was accomplished because of the collaboration between Brian France and other key stakeholders. The WSJ could have written the story differently, Gibbs felt, but it appeared to him the direction, regardless of the interviews conducted, had already been determined.
Among the topics broached in the WSJ story was the decline in TV ratings and attendance. It also detailed the relationship between Brian and his sister Lesa, part of which included that "the siblings power is divided, which causes tensions and makes it harder to implement far-reaching changes, according to people throughout the industry."
An early part of the story states, "With the first big race of the new season set for Sunday, NASCAR's problems seem to have spun out of control."
"I think everybody is engaged," said Gibbs (pictured). "I think everybody from Brian on down. We've had meetings with owners and with our OEMs and everybody. The second thing I would say on that, we announced FedEx the other day, a new extension for them, a long-term extension. There's three other sponsors that we also did that with our race team alone. We had Shell come in and make a huge decision with Roger (Penske).
"We also have two new sponsors coming in that we can't announce right now ... We have seven at Joe Gibbs Racing, us alone ? and I said this in that statement to the Wall Street Journal ? we have four Cup cars that are well-funded, going to go like mad with some of the biggest and best sponsors in the world. We have three Xfinity cars well-funded, going to go like mad and race like mad. Our sport, as far as I'm concerned, has a bright future.
"I think you don't get the biggest and best companies in America involved in our sport and going as hard as they are and re-upping and signing, unless you've got a sport that brings value to the table."
Richard Childress agreed the future of the sport is bright and pointed to the many talented young drivers climbing the ranks. He also pointed to NASCAR tweaking the aero package in hopes of making the on-track product better.
Chip Ganassi took to Twitter to counter the WSJ's picture of decline, pointing to Daytona's announcement on Saturday of a sellout for the Daytona 500:
Roger Penske said he was disappointed in the outcome of the story and that the talk about the France family was not pertinent to what is happening on the racetrack or in the grandstands.
"When I look at the sport, and I go back to 2006 when I ran the Super Bowl in Detroit, we were lucky to have 70,000 seats and to think about every weekend we have better than a Super Bowl 38 times," Penske said. "People need to take that into consideration. Then as you stack the media and the social media on top of that, I think the connection is amazing, and with the disruption we're gonna have now with these three different segments ? certainly when we announce a sponsorship like Shell yesterday for seven years, and you see FedEx ? I think that there's never been more competition on the racetrack.
"I think what we have to do as a group, the people in this room, we have to take a little different look at this. Certainly, we built these stadiums ? we had Michigan, and we had California ? and we just probably built too many seats because after the financial crisis, there's no question the spendable income that people had just wasn't available to do things like this two or three times a year."
But it's not just NASCAR, Penske said. The NFL also has faced similar issues, but Penske feels that's not talked about. For Penske (pictured celebrating with driver Brad Keselowski at Daytona last July), it's time to move on and talk about racing.
"There are a lot of young kids coming up in this sport," he said. "We've got great sponsors, and certainly the TV guys have connected with the drivers and the car owners on this format, the rule changes, and I think we've got to go racing."
When asked by RACER for a response to the comments team owners made, a spokesperson for the Wall Street Journal said, "The Journal stands by its fair and accurate reporting."
http://www.racer.com/nascar/item/138374 ... -the-sport
