France on ABC moving race: 'We didn't like it'

NASCAR Chairman Brian France criticized ABC for moving the final 34 minutes of Sunday's race to ESPN2 so it could show "America's Funniest Home Videos'' in the Eastern and Central Time Zones.

"We didn't like it,'' France said Tuesday during a teleconference with reporters. "That was not what we had anticipated, but we have talked to them repeatedly in the last couple of days. There were lots of circumstances that they had to consider. I don't have to agree with each one of those, but they have their own issues that they had to manage around, so ... unfortunately, we got the short end of that as a sport. We're working with them to hopefully eliminiate that happening in the future.''

So, what can be done and what is being said in those discussions?

"I think what's important is that ABC and ESPN and NASCAR, our interests are aligned. That doesn't mean we always see eye-to-eye on every issue, but they want to do what's in the best interest of the NASCAR race fan, which they serve week in and week out in lots of different ways. So, they did not like the idea of having to pull off of ABC and operate the way they did on Sunday.

"That said it is imperative that we work closely with them for scheduling, to have other considerations, in this case a red flag, which took the event another 30 minutes or more out of the window that they had planned and that's a very unusual thing in Arizona this time of year, so that probably wasn't anticipated. The most imporant thing is while we're not pleased with happened on Sunday, our interests are very much aligned and they do not want to do anything but the best coverage for our race fans and that, we have a lot of confidence we'll figure out.''

France also talked more of aggressive and comprehensive cost-cutting moves. Again testing seems to be on the table for major changes. Some owners are advocating zero days of testing at tracks that host NASCAR events but allow teams to use their telemetry on their cars on Fridays at the track and take that equipment off for qualifying.

Don't look for changes to the Chase just because Jimmie Johnson appears headed to a third consecutive series title. Said Brian: When someone is dominant like Jimmie has been the last three years, it's easy to want to devise some system that would somehow pull him back from being so dominant and make it a closer points battle. That would be, No. 1, wouldn't even be right, but secondly, it misses the point. We have a system that if everybody performs well, we have more people that have a shot at the championship down the stretch. That's undeniable.

"You've got to make the Chase in the first place. History as it will unfold, we're in our fifth year (with the Chase). As history will unfold, we will have some period of years where somebody might be as dominant as Jimmie and that will go down in the history books. Then, there will be other years where that won't happen and we'll have, I think, a number of years of historically tight championship battles and that will be terrific too. All we want is the right playoff format. If somebody is dominant, they're dominant. And if they're not, that will be terrific.''

Also, Brian said that race lengths will not be shortened any time soon. Same with the schedules. They won't be cut to help reduce costs. NASCAR will look elsewhere to save money.

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules of civility. Comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its Web sites. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment.