Tony Stewart questions how Brian France leads NASCAR

Tony Stewart was rather tight-lipped when he took part in the annual NASCAR preseason media tour Thursday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in downtown Charlotte. A short time later, though, the three-time Cup Series champion was quite vocal in sharing thoughts on the current leadership within the sport.

Speaking candidly during an interview on SiriusXM Radio, Stewart said he wants NASCAR CEO and chairman Brian France to take a more hands-on approach in governing the sport.

“I want to see Brian France at the track more,” Stewart said. “... I want to see him walking through the garage more. I want to see him being more active than just showing up and patting the sponsors on the back and going up in the suite. I want to see him down there in the trenches with everybody and understanding what’s truly going on. I think that’s where he needs to be for a while.”

Stewart was one of many drivers who publicly supported NASCAR moving to a low down-force aerodynamic rules package last season, an idea France and others within the sanctioning body resisted -- particularly Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR’s vice president of innovation.

Stefanyshyn, a former General Motors executive without any previous experience within racing, pushed for a high-drag package that was radically different from what Stewart and the majority of drivers preferred. The high-drag configuration was implemented twice last season with both events lackluster affairs featuring little passing and side-by-side racing. That prompted Stewart to again vocalize his support for the low-drag package and draw the ire of France, who reprimanded him in August at Pocono Raceway.

“I had a disagreement with Brian France, he came up to me at Pocono and gave me a hard time saying just because it was my idea doesn’t mean it was right,” Stewart said. “And I sat there, in my head was saying, ‘Wait a minute. You’re standing up for a guy who’s never worked on a race car, never been a part of a race team that now is making decisions on what the rules package is going to be versus guys who have been driving race cars for 20 or 30 years? So you’re telling us that that guy’s smarter than what we all are?’

“I picked up what Brian was putting down, and he’s right. It’s their series. They’ve got to make the decisions. Just because it’s my idea doesn’t mean it’s the right idea, but I’d like to think in the 37 years I’ve been in racing that I’ve learned a thing or two.”

France’s method of leadership is fundamentally different from that of his predecessors. Grandfather Bill France Sr., who founded NASCAR, and Brian France’s father, Bill France Jr., each maintained a steady presence within the garage so they could deal directly with any issues that arose and considered approachable.

Brian France prefers to stay in the background and delegates the day-to-day happenings to other executives while focusing his attention on big picture initiatives. When NASCAR formed the drivers’ council a year ago as a way to foster ideas and communication between officials and drivers, France declined to take part in meetings for fear those participating would hold back their feelings.

But Stewart wants France to attend, be an active participant and not rely on underlings to recap the proceedings.

“That’s why I’m saying he needs to be (in the meetings),” Stewart said. “But nobody wants to disrupt the apple cart. No one wants to make Brian mad. But we’re all in it together. If it doesn’t work for one, it doesn’t work for all of us.

“Brian’s got a lot invested in this. He’s emotionally invested. It’s what his family has built. I know Brian France cares. But I think there’s a lot of things that got lost in translation from a driver talking to somebody in the (NASCAR) trailer to when it gets to him. Who knows what it sounds like by the time it gets up there, or if it even gets up there. So that’s why a lot of us would like to see him there. Even if he doesn’t say anything. We just want to know that he’s hearing what we’re saying.”