Helton encourages Sprint Cup drivers to focus on fans, not COT issues
CONCORD, N.C. -- NASCAR called a mandatory meeting for Sprint Cup drivers and owners before Friday's practice at Michigan International Speedway in which president Mike Helton encouraged everyone to keep the fans first.
Was this what amounted to a fake reverse in football, a smokescreen, so to speak?
Was this an attempt to change the focus from the $225 million sexual harassment lawsuit former NASCAR official Mauricia Grant filed earlier this week?
Not according to NASCAR officials. Not according to the drivers.
They both agreed this simply was a reminder that during these tough economic times when fans are paying $4 a gallon for gas to travel to tracks that drivers should be more positive about the sport.
In other words stop complaining about the new car that has become a target for everything that is wrong in NASCAR's premier series, from creating boring races to being so hot that the drivers are at risk.
"My interpretation was that the drivers should be thankful for the position they're in and should be more positive in where this car is going to be in a year or two," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.
Jeff Burton agreed.
"In today's conversation you could have heard whatever you wanted to hear," he said. "I bet if you asked every driver what they heard they would have said something different. What I heard was things aren't bad. Let's don't forget we can make things better."
NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said this so-called "Come to Jesus" was a reminder of chairman Brian France's preseason back-to-basics message. That the timing was a few days after the lawsuit, he added, was merely coincidental and that the lawsuit wasn't discussed.
"We remind them if it weren't for the fans we wouldn't be here," he said. "The fans are paying over $4 a gallon for gasoline. [We told them] to keep the fans in mind when you're talking, to show your appreciation to the fans. Without them this wouldn't be like it is."
Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon would like to see NASCAR have more meetings with drivers, agreeing it's time to shut up and learn how to get more out of the car. Kasey Kahne, who has won two of the last three Cup events, said the meeting gave him a better understanding about the big picture of the sport.
"It's nice when the people above us, people we look up to, people we learn from, tell us certain things and get us on the same page on certain things," he said.
Earnhardt said the meeting reminded him of working with video game developer.
"The reason why the analogy works is because the public wants to know how good the game is," NASCAR's most popular driver said. "Once the game is released there's a lot of bugs and stuff, just like with this race car. And the public wants to know when is it going to be fixed and what's being worked on and what's going to be added. And a lot of companies are not eager to give that information out until it's done and finished.
"And I see NASCAR with that same attitude. I think that they do a lot of work behind the scenes and they probably agree with us more than we tend to believe."
Earnhardt doesn't believe NASCAR was trying to divert the attention from the lawsuit.
"I think it was merely coincidental," he said. "The COT is in a critical phase right now and I feel like NASCAR wanted to put the drivers in the right direction, mentally, not only for the critical phase to get worse but also because it's frustrating a little bit for us to be out there and want more out of the car.
"But they are open to allowing the car to evolve and there are probably some future opportunities to test some new ideas with the car to make it more raceable."
The criticism reached an all-time high last weekend at Pocono. Denny Hamlin and several others implied the car was much hotter than the older car and possibly put drivers at risk.
"I took it that they [NASCAR] are just frustrated that they're not getting a fair shake from us drivers," Hamlin said. "We're jumping to conclusions a little too soon and not giving this car enough time to develop."
Hamlin agreed with Helton that everybody needs to be more patient with the car.
"Yeah, you probably haven't seen the side-by-side racing that you've seen in the past, but I think a lot of that is that you're in the first year of the car," he said. "You're going to have teams that excel at it faster than the others so there is going to be a disparity of speed there.
"Until everyone gets it all figured out and on the same page, that's when you're going to see a little bit tighter racing."
Carl Edwards, who has won three times this season, agreed the new car has taken too much criticism.
"It just got a little out of hand this week, everybody complaining so much about everything," he said. "It's almost a little silly, I thought. I actually called David Pearson [Thursday] and talked to him about it, just to get his take on how things were back then.
"He told me when all those people started putting power steering in their cars they wouldn't do it because it was worth three horsepower. So he said he never used power steering."
Series director John Darby understands. He said there are a lot of things available to keep the cars cooler "that's not being used." He reiterated that NASCAR has no plan to change the car until it's been through an entire season.
"Before you can start discussing changes in the performance of the car you need to at least let it play out to understand what you need and don't need," he said. "I'm still of the mindset that other than Dover we're still way ahead of the game as far as performance on the track compared to the old cars."
Meanwhile, Darby said drivers need to be more sensitive to the people that pay to see them work.
"Take your time at the track to keep the fans involved, make them feel like the drivers want them to be here," he said.
Whatever Helton said, and it was just short of "eloquent" according to Hunter, must have worked. Drivers were much less critical of the car following practice. Some went out of their way to explain that it's still a work in progress.
Earnhardt went so far as to say NASCAR is doing "more than we give them credit for" to improve the car and racing. He appreciated the timing of the meeting, which began at 11 a.m. and lasted all of eight meetings.
"It's always great to be reminded," he said. "In my experience with Mike Helton, if he ever says anything, it's been very valuable to me. And every time that man has spoken, I've benefited from it.
"It gave me a whole lot clearer view of the situation than I had. And I appreciate Mike and NASCAR for thinking it was a good opportunity today to have that."
David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com.
