Q: There was a report last week about NASCAR looking at trimming the fields of Truck races to 28 and Cup fields to 36. Is this accurate? How might reducing a field ever be feasible for NASCAR.

 

 

HELTON: First of all it wasn’t a report, it was somebody’s opinion from the garage area and it was not a NASCAR opinion. We’re not looking at reducing the fields.

 

            “I would remind everybody that the fields have gotten where they are, let’s just take the Cup field at 43 and the Nationwide Series at 43 cars. They got where they are based on the response by NASCAR to the number of competitors that were entering the races and hoping to be as inclusive of as many people as we could but having to be reasonable to the size of the facility, accommodations and everything. When I first came on to NASCAR … our starting fields were 38 cars and then we gradually added until we got to the 43. Some of the tracks like Martinsville, (North) Wilkesboro, we didn’t start that many. I think it was 36. And so we’ve added starting spots to get to the 43 and, oh by the way, as we were trying to get more consistent, we made 43 spots everywhere and asked the tracks to help us accommodate all of that, which happened. For some time we’ve been at 43 and that is the current standard.

 

            “If we were unable to field 43 cars, then today being the standard, I suspect people would say, “Oh my gosh, why can’t you do that anymore?’ But the fact of the matter is that there’s no other form of motorsports out there that has that number of starting fields in existence other than ARCA, some of their races they have 43-car field.s

 

            ”If circumstances warranted it, then a field less than 43 cars … a reasonable size field under 43 cars, does not, I think impair the quality of a NASCAR race but there is no thought process today to shorten the field of a Cup or Nationwide series or Truck series.’’

 

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Q: Car counts seem to be cyclical and this issue came up a few years ago and there were questions that NASCAR’s TV contract with the networks stipulated there had to be 43-car field. Is that true?

 

HELTON: “That’s not accurate. We’re supposed to have a reasonable field of cars. That’s NASCAR’s determination as to what a reasonable field is. That reasonable is defined by the circumstances.

 

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Q: As the country falls into what is not almost now being described as a recession, what role can NASCAR play to help teams that are seeing some of their sponsorship go away and what role can NASCAR play to help fans who are struggling to afford to go to the race.

 

HELTON: “First of all I don’t know what you call the economic situation we’re in. I’m not sure what you call it but whatever it is, it’s not the same and it’s not the health that we’re used to having.

 

“The uniqueness of NASCAR as it might be compared to other sports is that it is collectively built of independent groups. Car owners are independent of the sanctioning body as well as independent from the race tracks. So, we have a group of independent bodies that come to make NASCAR what it is. NASCAR as the sanctioning body works with race teams on rules and regulations to try to help them with their costs. We work with race tracks to try to be more efficient at race tracks so that they can respond and do the things that they need to do. Along the way for all three groups, for NASCAR itself, for the car owners, for the race tracks there are resources that NASCAR has put together with marketing, licensing and public relations, those types of things that can utilized to help in talking to sponsors, to communicating and promoting events and different things.

 

            ”I think NASCAR’s role, in addition to being the sanctioning body, the officiating body of the sport is also to bring collectively together an effort that can support race teams and race tracks and talking with sponsors from statistics and information and be responsive to race tracks and race teams on the issues that they’re faced with to see if there is another way of scheduling, and when I say scheduling I narrow that down to the event weekend, not the season schedule, or in the rulemaking process to try to be responsive to the expensive side of the sport.’’

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Q: You don’t set tickets prices. Is there something you can do for the fans to help ease their pain. Bud Selig, commissioner of Major League Baseball, recently told owners not to be greedy with ticket prices after seeing attendance decline this year.

 

HELTON: “”NASCAR’s role is to deliver our product correctly to race tracks with race teams. I think that the race track operators that NASCAR sanctions the events with are very responsible and will be responsive to the race fan as it comes to the fan that buys a ticket and comes to the race.

 

”NASCAR, in general, is very concerned about that group. We’ve got a lot of fans that don’t come to every race. We’ve got fans that are supporters and fans of the sport everyday, every week and so our focus is to be sure that the product, the race cars and the race tracks with race car drivers is correct and I think the history shows that the car owners are prudent in their thinking and certainly the race tracks are responsive and prudent to the hosting of the events when it comes those fans that buy tickets or come to the race track. That’s important. That’s critical, but the way NASCAR is structured the way our sport is, there is not a vehicle per say that gives NASCAR as an organization the ability to talk to race tracks about how they treat fans. I guess ultimately if we’re not comfortable with the way a particular race track accommodates the fans of our sport, than we just wouldn’t go back to that race track but there’s nothing been that dire along the line.’’

 

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Q: During this economic situation, we’ve seen the government become involved in business in ways that nobody could have imagined. With that in mind, while NASCAR has been very forward about being against franchising, might there be a time when NASCAR needs to do something dramatic as franchising or revenue sharing or something else.

 

HELTON: We’ve looked and talked about that topic for 15 years that I know of. And there’s been a lot of debate around it. The ultimate consideration is in as much as NASCAR is based on competition and is a competitive model race cars on race tracks and if you could ever get car owners agree what franchising looks like in our sport, if you ever could because we’ve not been successful in even having two or three guys agree what those elements are in franchising. What does that do to the encouragement of competition in the sport if you had the element of franchising.

 

            “The complication over the independent structure of NASCAR, the complication of what does a franchise look in this particular form of sport and the fact that there’s not been an answer of how to do that and protect the competitive element that we depend on to make NASCAR’s product. We’ve not had an answer for franchising. Don’t see one in the near future.

 

            “And not sure the current economic state would mandate a franchise decision by NASCAR because that’s very permanent. That’s a very history changing element. I don’t think you could put one into play to get through the next couple of years and then take them away two years from now is what I’m saying. You’re all in once you do that. I think (franchising) would be a bit of a knee-jerk reaction for a short-term issue if all these other things lined up correctly, which they don’t. I think what NASCAR does do in the meantime is it listens very closely to car owners, it listens very closely to the race track operators and it listens very closely to its own 60-year history as to how to get through the current economic situation.’’

 

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Q: There’s often been speculation about Martinsville’s role on future NASCAR schedules. What do you see as Martinsville’s value on the schedule and how can that value remain if there was only one Martinsville race on the schedule.

 

HELTON: First off, I don’t know what the future of Martinsville holds. I know the history of Martinsville and I know the anticipation and expectation of coming to Martinsville is unique and profound to NASCAR, particularly the Cup series as well as the Craftsman Truck series. We’ll see what the future holds. We’d be speculating and we don’t do that.

 

            “As to the impact, I think when you drive around Martinsville today and we get here from Daytona Beach, when I say we I’m saying me and the other workers from NASCAR, and we drive around coming to the race track and somebody that’s fairly new in the organization asks us, “How did there ever get to be a race track in Martinsville, Virginia, because they’re looking at it from today’s templates, sort to speak. When you explain how Martinsville got on the map and it wasn’t NASCAR that made Martinsville, it was Martinsville that helped make NASCAR, then you look at it a little bit differently. I think we still have to look at the fact that Martinsville helped make NASCAR, NASCAR didn’t put Martinsville on the map. Martinsville put NASCAR on the map.

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Q: While NASCAR has had a four-car limit per organization, there are many, including some in the garage, who view some teams as really six- or seven-car organizations with their satellite affiliations. Why is this good for the sport to have such close ties between teams and when does NASCAR need to step in because a relationship is too cozy?

 

HELTON: “When we announced the cap of four, I think we were, and if not, we should have been very clear that this was going to be a bit of a work in progress because we had never been in this area before. Ever since then it has been a bit of a work in progress as we fine tune what that means. Along the way there’s been a lot of options, if you will, or requests as to can we do this and the answer was no, you can’t. Then also along the way there was a lot of Can we do this and we said, Well OK that is OK.

 

            “We’ve built this what is OK and what’s not OK kind of along the way and still are in some regards. Part of your question was is that good for the sport. Quite frankly, I’m not sure.

 

            “What is good today is providing quality teams on the race track to put our product on. If those relationships within reason can exist, and as much as they provide opportunities for Doug Yates to put cars on the race track or Hall of Fame Racing, Jeff Moorad and his group to have a race car on the race track at a level, then I think that is good for the sport.

 

            “Sometimes we have to stop and remember that Joe Gibbs is a product of Rick Hendrick’s relationship. Rick Hendrick helped Joe Gibbs put his organization together and put them on the race track. Rick Hendrick has helped Felix Sabates do that. And there’s been others that have helped others get in the sport and get launched that are today helping others. It’s not a overwhelming new issue, but I do think that within reason some supply provisionals, whether it’s engine or what have you, some of that, within reason, provides for the quality of the product on the race track, which I think is important.’

 

Q: When is it stepping over the line?

 

HELTON: We’ll have to see when that line gets there. The intent of the cap is for there to be opportunity for others to exist, and I think we see some of that. But I also think it’s too early to tell the full outcome of all of that, so I think we have to wait and see. Along the way when it does cross the line and we have to say no to some options that people have asked about, it’s based on control of an organization. If it’s a son or a daughter of an owner then you would have to expect they (the parent) would have good control over those individuals owning multiple cars as well. If it’s different relationships, family relationships, it could be brothers or sisters as well as it could be sons and daughters, those are relationships we feel like are too close. Part of it is to provide opportunities for others to be owners in the sport.

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Q: Certainly there has been a clamping down from tolerances with the new car to your recent reaffirmation of the yellow line rule. Can this sport afford to have rules with wiggle room anymore, and what do you say to fans who would suggest that the tightness of rules robs teams of that creativity and artificially keeps competition close?

 

HELTON: “Well, I think in the 60-year history of NASCAR what we have done is far as the officiating arm of the sport is we’ve continued to professionalize that, take away over, I know the last 20 years, as many of the gray areas as we can. Some of those, technology has given us the ability to do that. Others is it’s a matter of experience and changing a rule that says, OK it’s either this or that. It’s not gray anymore.

 

            “Again, the uniqueness of our sport with our playing fields being different every week, pit roads, the start/finish line, the size of the track, all of those, I think, keeps some elements that have what you call the wiggle room in them because of the uniqueness of the playing field that we might be at. But we have also tried very hard to get more black and white when it comes to the calls or tightening the tolerances as you say because that, we feel like, is the more healthy way to do many of the things we do for the balance of the garage area. So we continue to try to find ways to be more exact about those things.

 

            “While maybe creating closer tolerances or being very specific is new to some of us, we have to take into consideration that that’s the correct way for us to police the sport today. It’s not like it was 20 years ago, so we can’t completely act like it was 20 years ago. And so, even I look at it and say, “Gosh, it would be nice if we didn’t have to do that, but we do have to do that for the integrity and creditability and for the good of the sport.’’

 

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Q: Nine times already this season, qualifying has been canceled. Certainly some things you hear from fans is why can’t NASCAR push it back to the next day?

 

HELTON: Two things and one leads to the other. During the entire series, the 36 points races that we run that those are consistent. It starts with that. You look at the each event individually and if qualifying is rained out at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Thursday night and we’re racing Sunday as in the spring, there’s time to do qualifying. I’ll get to the time part here in just a minute. Most of the other places that we go there’s not.

 

            “The reason that there’s not is because that the qualifying element has to be after a certain amount of practice. So, let’s say that practice is a minimum an hour. So, you’ve got to be on the track for an hour to practice. Once you’re through practice, it takes at least an hour. John Darby (Cup series director) will tell you an hour and 45 minutes.

 

            “Let’s just say there’s a minimum of an hour of a turnaround to get ready for qualifying. It’s the teams getting the cars ready for inspection, the inspection process to put them out on pit road. An hour is really tight. I agree with John it should be closer to an hour and a half. Let’s just say for the sake of this conversation it’s an hour and then average qualifying is an hour and a half. We can do it in an hour and 10 minutes in Martinsville but it will take us two and a-half hours at Talladega. So, let’s say it’s an hour and a-half average.

 

            “”That’s three and a-half hours that you’ve got to be on the race track to qualify (that’s practice, turnaround time and qualifying). Just to get qualifying done. Then you’ve got to give teams time to go from qualifying to race setups. The teams, I think will tell you, they tell us certainly, that when it comes down to getting ready for a 500-mile or a 500-lap race, they want to be focused on that. That’s our bread and butter at the end of the day is the event itself, the three and a-half or four hours of racing that we do on race day. That’s what our bread and butter is. So, they’ve got to get ready for that. Well, now you’re talking about converting from qualifying to practice cars, which again let’s say is an hour and bare minimum an hour of practice, so now you’re looking at a five-hour minimum at the bare minimum, bare minimum. Maybe you could go ask other people in the garage and they would say, “Oh, no, that’s a seven-hour window.’ Let’s just say it’s a five-hour window.

 

            “So, if we lost today, putting that five hour window into tomorrow and running the Truck race and all the elements that go with the truck race, now becomes not possible to do time wise. Our hope is that everything works well, we practice, we inspect, we qualify, we get in our final practices in, we get race ready, all that evolution of things that’s the ideal situation but that doesn’t happen. When weather doesn’t allow us to do qualifying, the next most important thing for us is being ready for the race, so we shift to that and that’s why we generally don’t move qualifying over.’’

 

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Q: It’s still halfway to go in the Chase so anything can still happen, but this will be the fifth year of it and there’s the possibility of a driver winning it three years in a row. Add to that Darrell Waltrip said this week that the Chase should be shorten to possibly five races and have and immediacy of the NCAA Tournament. Is it time to consider making changes to the Chase again?

 

HELTON: “We ran the Chase three years saying we needed time to see what it would be like and then we tweaked it. We’re in the second year of the first set of tweaks, so I think we would say let us see how this goes before we talk about making any more changes to the Chase and this is the only the second year of the new changes. We think it’s a little bit early to try to maneuver around. I think it’s more fair to the teams and to the fans and to the system itself and, certainly, to the Sprint Cup series if you give these elements time to settle in and be consistent and comparable to others similar to it before you start moving stuff around because if you did it every year we’d get really confused. We get a lot of help along the way for everything from Chase to rules to schedules and everything else but it’s our role to make those decisions at the end of the day and that’s kind of where we’re at with the Chase.

 

            In regards to Jimmie Johnson, I think the focus there should not be on the Chase as much as it is on Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus and that organization being the caliber of organization that it is right now. They’re winning championships because of their strength, because of their ability and, along the way, they’re setting the bar for everybody else to follow.

 

            “The other element of the Chase, I think, should be looked at is you’ve got a guy that’s in the hunt right now, Jeff Burton. When we left Richmond in September and went to New Hampshire, there were 12 teams in this garage area that had the ability to be the 2008 Sprint Cup champion and they had 10 races to accomplish that in. It goes up and down every week. We left Richmond, I heard a lot of people declare Kyle Busch the champion. If it weren’t going to be Kyle, it certainly should be Carl Edwards based on everybody to that point. It’s changed now. You’ve got a guy like Jeff Burton that is very seriously in contention. You’ve got others. Greg Biffle came out with both barrels loaded and blazing when the Chase started to make a name for himself and says hey look I’m in contention now and he showed the world he is. I think that’s the elements of the Chase that we were looking for from day one. I think they’re alive and well with the current model.’’

 

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Q: In terms of competition, how do you judge the current car? Where does it excel? Where does it need work?

 

HELTON: “I would say that there’s no question in anybody’s mind that this car is safer, which was the No. 1 project for this car when it started nine years ago. You’ll get debate publicly but privately we’re convinced that the chassis helps teams be competitive in the garage area moreso than it did two years ago. You’ll still have organizations build as many cars as they want to build but this car gives teams who don’t want to build a bunch of chassis the ability to stay in the hunt and be competitive with fewer chassis and we’re convinced of that. We believe that.

 

            “That element, we think, is on the right track. What I think we’ve seen in 2008 and this is the first full season of this car, so sometimes we go at it for so hard and so long that we forget time sometimes. It’s almost like we live dog lives. Our lives are accelerated because of the schedules that we keep. We have to remind ourselves that this is the first full year of this car, and I think what we’ve seen in its first full year is we’ve seen the drivers, in particular, along with crew chiefs learning the nuances of this car to make it feel right for their driver. I think we’ve made headway. Drivers are learning how to drive this car. And, oh by the way, they’re race car drivers. They’re not old guys going to work or soccer moms. They’re race car drivers, so they have learned to drive these race cars and I think what we’ve seen is the progression of more drivers, more teams, learning the nuances of this car and the performance on the race track and the expectation of race fans, what they expect a NASCAR race being there. Now, whether we’re there today or not, I’m not going to sit here and tell you we are, but I think there are strides being made. I like the results of the races recently, the last 10 or 12 races, what you see on the race track. I think it’s what NASCAR fans expect of NASCAR.’’