Europe, China on NASCAR radar

By DAVID GREEN

Did I miss it, or did nobody in the U.S. take note when Brian France was quoted in Financial Times magazine last month as stating that NASCAR has global intentions? MSNBC picked up the story, under Bernard Simon's byline, from FT, but otherwise, I haven't seen any mention of this. Maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention.

Anyway, in case you missed it, "It's terribly important for us to keep expanding the audience," the London-based publication quoted the third-generation NASCAR prez as saying. "For our television partners, the bigger, the better."

Taking NASCAR to Europe and China was the fifth of five points Simon's story listed as priorities for America's most successful auto racing organization. Just what "taking NASCAR" to those destinations means, the story did not clarify.

The other four strategic points were to:

(1) Continue to exploit connections with Hollywood. Presumably, that means more than merely a sequel to "Talladega Nights."

(2) Broaden media coverage. "This is a terribly undercovered sport right now," France said, according to Simon.

(3) Expand the range of NASCAR teams. This item cited the addition of Toyota to the manufacturer ranks next season.

(4) Expand nationally. The Pacific Northwest and New York metropolitan area were cited as targets.

Not much of this is such groundbreaking news, I suppose -- not even the "taking NASCAR to Europe and China," when you consider that there have already been NASCAR exhibitions in Japan, non-sanctioned NASCAR-type events in Australia, and more than a few racing series for NASCAR-style racing vehicles in England and on the European continent.

But you would have thought some of those who contribute to that woefully inadequate media coverage would have picked up on this, if for no other reason to use it as an excuse to lambast France, who is surely the Rodney Dangerfield of American sports chief executives.

Maybe long-time traditional fans are so tired of the latest "new frontier" for stock car racing, they just don't care. Maybe, as far as the Pacific Northwest and New York -- and Europe and China for that matter -- are concerned, their attitude is, "Take NASCAR -- please."

Those fans, and many in the professional media and in the blogging world, would accuse NASCAR in general and Brian France in particular of forgetting the advice made famous decades ago by University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal, who said, approximately, "you've got to dance with the one that brung you."

That, of course, depends on your objective. If a gal leaves the dance hall with some cowboy other than the one who "brung" her, she may have betrayed her original date, but if the new guy was her goal all along, she has accomplished her mission.

According to Financial Times, France promised "we're always going to have the key ingredients that our core fan loves. We're going to have historically big events in the south."

Who knows? NASCAR may go on to knock Formula One off its top-of-the-racing-world pedestal someday. That would make all the business-driven decisions of recent years look good -- to everybody, that is, but the jilted "cowboys" who brung NASCAR to the dance.