NASCAR’s Brian France: Chase format will stand in 2015

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR will roll into the 2015 season with no significant changes a year after it blew things up in a major way with a knockout-round Chase postseason format.

Fans “liked the fact that it tightened up competition,” NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France said during the opening of the 2015 Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour Monday afternoon.

“They liked the drama down the stretch. They liked the emphasis on winning. And one of the things they told us that they really liked is the idea that we weren’t going to change anything, and they strongly suggested that we didn’t, and we’re not going to.”

Once again, that will include the possibility of a winless driving advancing to the winner-take-all elimination format in Homestead and possibly winning a title. Ryan Newman was in that mix last season, causing a bit of ruckus among some fans who felt that a deserving champion needed at least one victory.

“It would have been a Cinderella story,” France later told the Orlando Sentinel. “And that happens in sports. So we didn’t even look as that as a negative, even though it would have been viewed that way by some people.

“[Consistency] is part of it, too. We didn’t throw it all out. We realize the importance of it.”

Kevin Harvick emerged as the Cup champion from a field of 16 drivers, whittled down to four in the final race for the title in which Newman finished second to winner Harvick. NASCAR has tweaked the Chase format over the years since it made its debut in 2004, but last season brought huge changes.

“Selfishly, I liked it last year,” said Denny Hamlin, one of the final four drivers in contention for a title. “We were constantly in a battle to stay out of the bottom four. It didn’t matter if it was the cutoff race or the one right before the cutoff race. There was always some level of excitement in every single Chase race for whatever reason.”

But like any sport, NASCAR is an evolving business model and open to significant changes down the road as it pushes for continued mainstream relevance despite dips in attendance and TV ratings.

Sprint, sponsor of NASCAR’s highest-tiered series, recently announced that it was severing ties after the 2016 season. France and his group will be looking for only its third Cup series sponsor since 1972. NASCAR will welcome a new sponsor this season in its secondary series as Nationwide drops out and is replaced by Xfinity.

As the changes progress, NASCAR is continually trying to find a balance between keeping its core group of traditional fans and appealing to new ones.

“I get that question a lot: How do you manage attracting new fans? Because you have to do some new initiatives and things that are appealing to millennial fans but may not be appealing to some of the traditional fans,” France said. “But at the end of the day, our traditional fans love one thing. They love safe, exciting, real tight racing, and if the packages and the formats give that to them, then they’re generally pretty happy.”

Read George Diaz‘s blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/enfuego or e-mail him at gdiaz@orlandosentinel.com