SPEEDWAY, Ind. -- NASCAR CEO Brian France called IndyCar “a friend” to his league but was adamant that the Sprint Cup and Nationwide tours should never co-headline a venue with the IndyCar Series on the same weekend.
NASCAR CEO says Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series will not co-headline with IndyCar
Brian France said that he wants to see IndyCar grow but do so by standing on its own.
Streeter Lecka
The comments were made in the Friday edition of the Indianapolis Star when reporter Curt Cavin asked the NASCAR leader a variety of questions in advance of the NASCAR Super Weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“We consider them a friend,” France said. “We can’t win when other people lose. We would prefer to see a healthy IndyCar Series.
“I know we’ll help them significantly by moving to NBC and the NBC Sports Network. We’ll give a lot of visibility to that network and that in turn will be good for them. Our hope is that they will get stronger because we run at a number of the same venues and if they can contribute to those venues that need all kinds of capital and improvements, (that) would be a win for us.”
With that said, France added that NASCAR does not plan to help the IndyCar attendance figures by allowing the Indy cars to run as a support race on Nationwide or Sprint Cup weekends.
It should be noted that the Camping World Truck Series does run a doubleheader with the IndyCar Series in June at Texas Motor Speedway. But the other two national touring divisions will not be considered for co-headlining.
“Nationwide is significantly ahead of the Indy Racing League in terms of its television ratings and attendance and everything else with the exception, obviously, of the Indy 500. We wouldn’t want to mix that. They have to stand on their own, and we have to stand on our own,” he said.
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