France had plans to step away from the NASCAR CEO role
Brian France became the CEO of NASCAR in 2003. He led the sport, bringing a number of game-changing systems such as stage racing and the playoffs.
His 15th year as CEO, ended in flames. France drove through a stop sign in New York on August 5th, 2018. He was arrested for DUI and possession of oxycodone.
Jim France has since taken over the CEO role. In 2022, Ben Kennedy, son of Lesa France Kennedy stepped up to take an executive role in the company.
Meanwhile, Brian France has stepped out of the spotlight. He’s spoken very little of his arrest. But, he’s moved into a new chapter of his life as the owner of the private investment firm, Silver Falcon Capital.
Brian France discusses his arrest
“I made a mistake on that evening,” Brian France stated of his arrest via the Dale Jr Download.
“Can’t happen, a mistake like that. It did happen, that’s on me. That’s just something you can’t do. Life moves on. It’s like stepping out of the car but on messier terms.”
“That part of life. There’s things that come at you and you don’t get them right all the time. I feel great about getting passed that stuff.”
“And it wasn’t just my health, the DWI, it wasn’t just that. There were a lot of things that I was trying to balance in my life, at the time. I’ve been able to do that batter and more effectively, now.”
“I’m happy how I’ve overcome a few things. They’re not always easy.”
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“It allowed me to leave NASCAR.”
“That was a dark moment. But, it caused me to look at some things that I was doing in my life that could have been done a lot better. My health, number one,” France added.
“It allowed me to leave NASCAR. We did that in a really good way with the family, that was the right decision to make. I needed to do something different.”
“I had a 15 year run as the CEO, that’s a long time. I don’t like a messy ending like that but I couldn’t be any happier with what I’m doing now. And, being able to look back at what we did accomplish.”
“My legacy, I don’t really look at it that way. We weren’t trained to look at it that way, as a family business.”
“But, that was tough. That was a tough time in my life. Tough on my family, on Jim and Lesa.”
“Try to be the best version of yourself, yeah, you overcome things like that. Right now, I’ve got a cool life. I get to work with only the people I want to work with, only on the projects that I want to work on. We use our own private capital. And, I get to support NASCAR, which I love.”
“I had a long, good run at NASCAR.”
“My life’s gotten a lot bigger since August 5th and I had a pretty big life, before. No matter how great the NASCAR role was there’s a whole lot of obligatory things that crowd out other things that you want to do in your life. That’s all been removed and that’s cool for me.”
Brian France had plans to leave NASCAR
“I was going to do it myself,” France said of leaving NASCAR.
“But, it’s hard to make that change though. Part of it, it’s one of the greatest jobs in all of sports. I didn’t take that lightly.”
“But, I got really good advice a long time ago, ‘This is not about you, anyway. You gotta perform, do you part and help other people be successful. Then, we’ll be successful, grow the pie for everybody. They’ll be results of there won’t be. By the way, if there aren’t results, you’re not going to be here very long regardless of your last name.’ “
Would Brian ever return to the family business?
“No. Once you’ve done what I’ve done, there’s not really a good role for you.”
“But, I’m truly having fun watching Ben Kennedy. We’ll have lunch here and there but he’s doing his thing.”
“I’ll go down to Daytona and visit people during the week, usually in January, just to see if I can help anyone. I also realize that once you leave the CEO position, you don’t hover around. You need to let people do their thing.”
