NASCAR Had Better Leadership With Brian France

The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, and that certainly seems to be the case when it comes to NASCAR’s leadership.

Brian France served as the CEO and chairman of NASCAR from 2003-18, and during his tenure, he was not very popular, to put it kindly. But in the six years since France’s uncle Jim took over the post, the leadership has gotten far worse than it ever was during the Brian days.

I’m not going to sit here and say Brian France was the perfect head of NASCAR. He was a far cry from his grandfather Bill Sr. and father Bill Jr. The hate for Brian among the fanbase started almost immediately, when he started a playoff format in the NASCAR Cup Series just a few months into the job. And in a roundabout way, you can link the controversies from the end of the Sunday’s (Nov. 3) Xfinity 500 back to him even creating the playoffs.

Brian France was also absent a lot. He locked tracks into long-term agreements that made the schedule stale, and he clearly had some sort of substance abuse problem. That last part is ultimately what led to his stepping down as CEO and chairman, as he was arrested on Aug. 5, 2018, after driving through a stop sign. He was charged with a DWI and possession of oxycodone, later pleading guilty to the DUI in a deal with the prosecutors.

But there was a lot of good early on in France’s tenure. I get that he shouldn’t be credited alone for all the good, but he at least surrounded himself with great people who knew what they were doing.

The cars got a lot safer, with no driver deaths on the racetrack. Four drivers had been killed in a two-year span just a few years before he took over. Since Jim France took over, NASCAR has gone to a car (the Next Gen) that wasn’t as safe when it first rolled out. That car ended Kurt Busch‘s career and gave concussions and other injuries to a number of other drivers its first few years.

NASCAR ratings skyrocketed his first three years on the job, despite the introduction of the playoffs, or the Chase, as it was known then. He got the series its biggest TV contract ever at the time, and his signing of Sprint as the Cup Series title sponsor remains the largest to date.

Both the ratings went on to hit rock bottom, and the Monster Energy title sponsor deal that was significantly lower than what Sprint paid was negotiated while France was still in charge. So those two things can’t be blamed on the Jim France era. But the ratings remain a…