Inside Brian France teleconference

NASCAR doesn't want this early break in the schedule and has taken steps to rectify that next year when the Daytona 500 slides back to the final weekend in February and the traditional March stop in action goes away. All of the momentum and positive stories that were generated in the first three races of the year have the potential to be derailed by the lack of a follow-up race this weekend. France is right when he points out NASCAR's season is a long one, but continuity at the beginning of the schedule is imperative and although there's nothing the sanctioning body can do about it in 2011, that will change beginning next season.

France on attracting a younger fan demographic:
I think having a young winner (Trevor Bayne) and Jeff Gordon runs up our young fan base and then (Dale Earnhardt) Junior, arguably he's competitive more than he was a year ago. Probably a lot of reasons. I think the kinds of racing we had just to get off to kind of a good start. But the young demo is something we're going to keep working at. It goes to candidly reaching new young fans. This is not a one-dimensional effort here just to get people to tune in on television. It's to get young fans really interested for the long run in every aspect of enjoying NASCAR the way we want them to enjoy NASCAR.

What it means:
Trevor Bayne's Daytona win was a shot in the arm for NASCAR's critical effort to attract a younger fan base in what is a rapidly aging audience. But there's a long way to go in this area and while France is correct in saying it's important for the sport to find that younger fan it's not going to be easy. The on track product needs to be the main draw but other initiatives are sorely lacking. Something as simple as a video game would help NASCAR plug into younger fans. Digger is not going to be the cure and NASCAR needs to find ways to bring a youth movement to the grandstands and television audiences.

France of possible rough driving:
We've said you have to mix it up, this is a contact sport. We feel really good about that. It's made the racing better. They've got to figure that out. They're doing that largely. I would say too with the wild card situation, where the last two spots are going to be decided by wins, if you don't happen to have the perfect Top 10 performance in the first 26 events, I think you saw the disappointment of Tony (Stewart) not winning (at Las Vegas) when he thought he should have won last weekend he now counts that because he doesn't start fast. He may need that. I think you're going to see an escalation of that. That's what great competition is. I'm actually happy to hear people complaining about that. It means it's working.

What it means:
"Boys Have at It - The Sequel." Last year's mantra has carried over to his season and NASCAR is fine with it. France is right when he points out the interest level in the sport definitely picked up when drivers were beating and banging their way around last season and although it hasn't been at quite the level of last year, it doesn't appear anyone behind the wheel has backed down from that approach. Whether it plays into the Chase qualifying field and the Wild Card aspect added this year to bring wins into a more prominent role of determining the playoffs remains to be seen. But France is dead on about Stewart's frustration not getting the Vegas win last week and how the ramifications of that may be part of a Chase scenario.

France on possible schedule changes:
Do we see any major changes in the schedule? We don't release that for another month or so. We did have a fair amount of changes last year and even some in the last couple years. So by definition I don't think you're going to see a lot of changes. We'll see how some of the new dates, their new time on the calendar works out. But I don't think there will be as much as there was say in 2010. We don't want there to be. We prefer to have good continuity. That's our preference.

What it means:
Outside of the Daytona 500 moving back a week and the schedule condensing don't look for any major overhaul of the calendar any time soon. Next year's slate will only feature two off weekends (Easter and a late summer rest) but other than that the order of races will more than likely mirror what we have in 2011. The Atlanta and Kentucky date swap along with Fontana losing a date to Kansas and Phoenix moving into the post-Daytona slot were major changes for this season and NASCAR will let things settle a couple years at least before looking at things. That means no changes in the ten races that make up the Chase. But when the new television contracts come up in 2014, I'd say schedule adjustments will be a major negotiating item.