Brian France: New Chase success, even if winless titlist

NASCAR chairman says revamped format has delivered and suggests any 2015 tweaks would be 'modest'

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France believes the new Chase for the Sprint Cup format is working exactly as intended - and said it's here to stay.

'This is a format that is not a one‑time phenomenon,' France said Friday during his annual end-of-season news conference at Homestead-Miami Speedway. 'This is a format that when we've thought about it carefully, we realized this is something you can build on. This is the future for Sprint Cup racing.'

France said the Chase - which now has a series of three, three-race elimination rounds that whittles the 16-driver playoff field to four finalists - has done what NASCAR hoped it would. The level of competition is up, fans are excited and the interest level of the sport has grown, France said.

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'I think depending on what happens on Sunday, it has a chance to be one of the most successful seasons in NASCAR history,' France said.

France said he anticipates the format could undergo 'very modest to zero' changes next season, even if Ryan Newman somehow becomes the first winless champion in NASCAR's 65-year history.

When France introduced the new Chase in January, he repeatedly touted it as one that emphasized winning and reduced points racing. But Friday, France cited consistency as a positive and said he wouldn't consider a rule that made winning a requirement for the championship.

'There ought to be room for teams that do it every week and can be consistent,' he said. 'I don't care how you do it, frankly, but if you get through into the finale on Sunday and then you beat those three teams, that will be an achievement for anybody.

'We'll be delighted if Ryan Newman and (team owner) Richard Childress are able to pull it off.'

France cautioned it might take fans some time to learn the new format - especially casual fans - and understand the significance of elimination races and how the rounds work.

That might be reflected in the TV ratings, he said. The ratings were down or flat for six consecutive weeks during the Chase before rising the last two weeks.

NASCAR measures the interest level in ways other than just TV ratings, including digital presence and ticket sales, France said.

'We might have expected that the ratings would even be higher, and there's lots of reasons,' France said. 'But one of them is that when it comes to what is a transfer race, it's just going to take some time for this format (for fans) to go, 'Oh, yeah, that's a transfer race, these guys are in good shape, these drivers aren't and so on.' That's going to take time.'

One factor in the TV ratings is the attention NASCAR has received from a pair of post-race incidents at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, both of which involved Brad Keselowski.

Keselowski has been criticized by some drivers and fans for his aggressive driving, but France said the 2012 champion is 'doing exactly what he should be doing.

'Everybody has got a right to have their own style of driving out there,' France said. 'If you go back to any of the great ones -- Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, all of them -- they faced a similar discussion from time to time as they started to have success on the track, as some of those drivers believed a little bit more contact was necessary sometimes, and they were young and they were getting some words about that.

'But if you go through NASCAR's history, that's what we're about. I say it all the time: Late in a race, we expect -- there are limits and lines, but we expect tight, tight racing that sometimes will have some contact. It's in our DNA. I think he's doing a great job of being aggressive.'

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