NASCAR's Brian France talks about possible changes coming to sport & why TV ratings are down

Changes to the Chase? A change to the starting times of races? NASCAR Chairman Brian France hinted at such things and gave his idea for why TV ratings have declined this season in an interview Friday on "Sirius Speedway'' on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Here's what France had to say on Sirius Satellite Radio

QUESTION: This is what the Chase was supposed to be like (with three drivers so close this late in the season)

BRIAN FRANCE: "It is. It's supposed to, obviously, be very competitive and make it where the driver who is at his best when it really matters, which, of course, is down the stretch. That's what everybody wants to see. We're thrilled that it's turning out that way. This is going to be a telling weekend. Looking forward to kicking off the final three here in Texas this weekend.''

QUESTION: With the Chase going as well as it is, are there still discussions going on at NASCAR about further tweaks to the Chase or have those been put on the backburner now?

BRIAN FRANCE: "No, I don't think so. I think it's this time of the year when we do a lot of things in terms of looking at what is the best rules package or format in the case of the Chase or whatever it might be. We've announced a few weeks ago going to ethanol and our first biofuel, which is really important for us to keep a slow steady step in the green space and doing what's best for the environment and energy independence. When it comes to the Chase, what we want is big moments where drivers and teams have to be their very best on a given day, that's what creates the atmosphere we want and we'll be looking to make sure we have the perfect format going into 2011.''

QUESTION: Wide spread reports about new look for Cup cars in 2013. Is NASCAR now fully convinced and buying into manufacturer's demands for more brand identity?

BRIAN FRANCE: "We've always bought into that. It takes on different points of view as you go along. Clearly we're going to have more technology in the race cars, we'll do that carefully. What we don't want to do is mess up the competitive balance or run the cost up unnecessarily for the team owners. That's always one of NASCAR's foundational issues.  So, we'll be looking at that carefully. On the other hand, technology in the cars that are selling today are ever more important. You saw the biofuel was not just because we have our own green initiatives, we want to be in step with the car manufacturers, they know how important that is. It's fair to say with the look of the car, we'll be  looking to make sure that Chevrolet, Toyota, Dodge, Ford and all of them and maybe some other manufacturers who look at NASCAR down the road will have plenty of brand identification and plenty of technology and other things that are relevant to their brands.''

QUESTION: Have you been pleasantly surprised by the positive fan reaction to the Nationwide cars? It has been warmly embraced like very few things in this sport are.

BRIAN FRANCE: "It's good to see. That's a good example of where those cars look a lot more like a Ford or a Chevrolet or whatever. We're happy that the drivers like that car. We learned a lot with the new car in the Sprint Cup Series in terms of how to roll something out, how to get more things with the chassis right. it did come together good and that's a good thing.''

QUESTION: In your conversations with the TV partners is there a consenus for why the ratings are down and what can be done to get them up?

BRIAN FRANCE: "Obviously, you want to be trending up and not down. We did a number of things that may have had an unintentional impact, we rolled the starting times back for some reasons to help our fans get to the events and get home quicker. That's something we'll be looking at. We switched from ABC to ESPN for a variety of reasons, most of which we think will work out in the long run and various other things that were occuring back in '09 and back in '08 that aren't happening now.  We took a long step backwards, frankly, when we all kind of pounded away at the racing action. Whether that was perception or reality, it doesn't matter. It's the hardest job in motorsports to keep the competitive balance for all the teams even at the same time making sure that the cost and safety portions are done correctly. Mike Helton and his whole team have gotten the cars to where all you hear now is how good the racing is. When you put all that, what I just descrbied in a blender, that may take some time to percolate up to the top. Our job is to put the best racing forward. It's competitive out there, you're having unprecedented moments by other sports leagues and good for them. We certainly like to have bigger and better moments and we will.''

QUESTION: The perception seems to match realtiy and that Cup racing is as good as it has ever been.

BRIAN FRANCE: "That's the steak on the plate as we like to say. We'll be the first to say when you have 43 cars and four divisions and car manufacturers and everybody who is pulling on the rope wanting to win, to make sure that you get a competitive rules package for everybody. That's a hard thing. That's our obligation to do it. We know we've done it now. It's just watch the storylines and we'll see how things go.''

QUESTION: Anything else to say?

BRIAN FRANCE: "The only final points I have is I think you have the three drivers who have run the best all year (in Cup) when you think about it when you think about it in Kevin Harvick and you think about Jimmie Johnson tyring to win five here and Denny Hamlin, who frankly was on a mission when he started this year to run competitively enough to be in serious contention to win it all and that's how it has worked out. So if you're us, watching the three who have been the most focused and best all year get a chance to settle it on the track in the final three, to us that's about as good as it gets.''

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Also Friday, Kevin Harvick Inc. announced that Elliott Sadler will drive in the Nationwide Series for that team next year with CitiFinancial as the sposnor. It's a big step for Sadler, who will make his 383rd consecutive Cup start Sunday (seventh most among active drivers) in moving to the Nationwide Series.

Sadler says this is what he wants.

"As we were getting this stuff done at the 12th hour last night, my wife and I went to P.F. Changs's to eat dinner and we got a Fortune Cookie and in my Fortune Cookie it says: "You are about to embark on a most delightful journey.' I looked at my wife and I said, "It's funny how things work out sometimes and we looked at each other and smiled about it and I got up this morning and I said today is the first day of the rest of my life. This opportunity that I'm getting right now from Kevin and DeLana, all the stuff that we've done in the truck series with poles and wins ... they've really opened up their arms and their doors of their race shop to let me be a part of their race team.  We are running for the champoinship for next year.''

About going from Cup to Nationwide, Sadler said:

"As far as stepping back or running Nationwide or running Trucks, one of my best friends I've ever had in this sport, I leaned on him (Dale Jarrett) very, very hard in the last couple of months help me decide my future because he had been there and done that. He was fulltime Cup driver in 1988-89,  he lost his job, he went back to Nationwide racing for a year and he got hired by the Wood Brothers and he came back and he was the champion in 1999. We talked. ... This is the path I decided to take because of the commitment that Kevin and DeLana have given me this year. I want to be competitive. I want to race to win. I want to race to have fun. I want to be that driver that I had grown up being my whole life and this is the best opportunity across the board that I can have to be Elliott Sadler.''

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