Life in the fast lane
NASCAR CEO Brian France is revving up the stock-car racing money machine
Yet rather than put NASCAR in neutral, France chose to be an agent of change. His latest move: lifting NASCAR' s decades-old ban on hard-liquor ads, which could prove a lucrative source of revenue.
Piling up the points. Clearly, his boldest move so far has been to rejigger the sport's 30-year-old scoring system. Historically, drivers accumulated points toward the championship over the course of the season. But that often resulted in a single driver's nursing an insurmountable lead over the last few races--and some dull finishes. France's new "Chase for the Championship" reset the points with 10 races to go, giving the top 10 teams a healthy chance at the cup. The goal is to boost ratings and interest in October and November, when the onset of the NFL, the World Series, and college football normally relegates stock-car racing to a ratings also-ran.
Is it working? TV viewership in the last third of the season is up slightly, according to Nielsen Media Research. But any dramatic changes could take a few years to show up in ratings. And many NASCAR participants remain uncertain about the new system. "I'm still sort of out to school on it," says team owner and seven-time champion Richard Petty.
The alteration has definitely generated a buzz, though, say network and NASCAR executives, who point to better coverage of the Nextel Cup by the major media this season. It's a sore spot for France: "We are underserved relative to the size of our audience, so the most important thing is turning the corner with the general media," he says. France was previously headquartered in Los Angeles, where he administered broadcast rights and spearheaded media and entertainment deals for NASCAR. The big TV contract and an IMAX movie are two of the projects he led.
NASCAR' s realignment is probably the most fundamental change underway. It involves moving races from sleepy southern towns to big media markets where sponsors want them. In the past decade, races have been moved to Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and Las Vegas. This year, Phoenix and Dallas were added to the schedule, and plans are being laid for tracks in the Seattle area and New York City--probably on Staten Island. Because the season can't be expanded any further, places like Darlington and Rockingham, N.C., must give up races. "It's very ticklish," says David Hill, chief executive of Fox Broadcasting and head of Fox Sports. "As NASCAR grows, it has to cut some umbilical ties with the area that gave the sport birth."
France treads delicately around the topic of race realignment, probably because some 40 percent of NASCAR' s fans are southerners. "We're always going to have an enormous presence in the Southeast," says France. "But we will take some events to other markets to have a better footprint."
The large southern base is about the only truth to the stereotype of NASCAR fans as beer-chugging bubbas. Though NASCAR' s origins are male and blue collar, its fans are now 42 percent female and closely resemble the rest of America in terms of income and education. They're also predominantly white, though earlier this year NASCAR persuaded basketball great Magic Johnson to lead an initiative to put more African-Americans in the stands and, eventually, into driver's seats.
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