NASCAR chairman Brian France continues to deny any plans to leave NASCAR any time soon, but the speculation is hotter than ever this week that once France finishes the new TV negotiations, sometime over the next year, he will, indeed, be moving on. France won’t discuss the family business in any detail, and NASCAR is a private family venture, unlike the publicly-traded International Speedway Corp. However, insiders say that France has sold, or is selling, or plans to sell his shares in NASCAR to the rest of the family. Some of the sport’s biggest and most important figures are wondering who the France family might pick to succeed Brian if he leaves. There are indications that Jim France, Brian’s uncle and the brother of long-time NASCAR boss Bill Jr., and Lesa France Kennedy, Bill Jr.’s daughter and the woman running the family’s ISC track operations, are heading the search for candidates.(Winston Salem Journal)(5-13-2005)
