“What I know is when the racing is tighter and there’s more passing, there’s just more excitement and more contact and more things that happen,” France told ESPN.com Tuesday as the Sprint Cup Series heads into its first off weekend. “That’s kind of what NASCAR is all about.

“Kind of what happened on Sunday was a prototype event for how we would look what a good event ought to look like.”

Hamlin suffered a compression fracture to a vertebra in his lower back when he crashed hard into a concrete barrier while battling former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano for the lead on the last lap. He is expected to miss six weeks.

It was the second time in two weeks the drivers were involved in an on-track incident. Hamlin spun Logano out while Logano raced Jeff Gordon for the lead a week earlier at Bristol.

But France said he has no plans to talk to them about settling their feud.

“No, because what they did, notwithstanding that Denny got injured, what they did in the last 20 laps is exactly what we would have expected them to do,” France said. “This is a contact sport. It’s always been a contact sport, especially late in the race.

“They were going at it. It probably didn’t hurt the competitiveness that both drivers didn’t want the other one to win. They also did want to win themselves. That’s how NASCAR racing goes. We won’t be having any conversation with them.”

But Hamlin’s crash raised the question of why there weren’t SAFER barriers on the inside retaining wall where his car hit, and why tracks aren’t required to have SAFER barriers everywhere.

France said NASCAR is studying Hamlin’s crash carefully, and that if experts recommend SAFER barriers are needed where it occurred, the governing body will make that recommendation to the track.

But France said the solution is not as simple as putting barriers everywhere.

“The reason, there’s not a one-solution-fits-all-problem with the wall,” he said. “Some walls, it might sling the car back into the racing groove at the wrong time. They’ll never put SAFER barriers up everywhere because that’s not the best approach.

“If the current approach can be improved, we’re certainly going to do that. We’re looking at the accident that Denny had very carefully.”

France has been busier than usual to start the season. He met with reigning champion Brad Keselowski in late February to discuss questionable comments the Penske Racing driver made in a newspaper article.

Then came a suspension of Nationwide Series driver Jeremy Clements for using a racial slur in front of an MTV reporter, followed by a $25,000 fine to Hamlin for criticizing the new Gen-6 car and the quality of racing at Phoenix.

France acknowledged it was primarily his decision to penalize Hamlin, and he stood by that decision.

“There’s always going to be, when we make decisions that are not black and white per se, we’re always going to have people all over the organization that may not have made that call,” France said. “But I did. I’m crystal clear with everybody about where the line is, what we can accept, and about how the sport is going today.

“And that is we give more latitude than any professional sport to criticize, speak their mind and say whatever they want. We encourage it, actually, including criticism that gets directed at us. But when the driver . . . begins to call out the quality of the racing or the rules packages, we have to make that call or opinions will shape what may not be reality.”

France met with Hamlin, who dropped his right to appeal the fine, and believes they are on the same page now.

France also believes the quality of racing is better than ever with the new car. He didn’t rule out tweaks in the future or a change in the package for restrictor-plate racing at Daytona and Talladega, but overall he is pleased.

“It’s hard to argue with five different winners and all the manufacturers seem to have a fair opportunity and they’re all in the winner’s circle,” he said. “And there’s a lot more passing.

“But I think it’s too early to say we’ve got the perfect package. That’s always going to be a work in progress.”

There have been 147 green-flag passes for the lead in 2013, up from 122 after five races a year ago and down from 203 in 2011 and 298 in 2010.

France also noted that television ratings in general are up, another sign the sport is headed in the right direction.

“We have some momentum,” he said. “Some really good things have happened to us. We all know ratings are still driven by storylines and matchups in a given weekend. You saw that last weekend where basketball ratings were up because they had better matchups than they’ve had or Tiger Woods was on the leaderboard [in golf].

“We’ll just keep working on what we can do. If we have close, great racing like we have, then the ratings will take care of themselves. For all the things that could have gone wrong with the new car and a new season, a lot of good things went really well and we’re pleased with that.”

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Attorney Matt Morgan of Morgan & Morgan announced the hiring on Twitter Monday night. The tweet read:

“BREAKING: My firm has been retained by three individuals who were injured at the NASCAR race this past weekend.

Morgan told ESPN.com on Tuesday that no lawsuits have been filed, but he is gathering information for the individuals to “pursue their claim for damages against the entities responsible for the injuries.”

The entities could include Daytona International Speedway, the company that designed the catch fence, NASCAR, the car owner and others.

“At this time, we have no knowledge that any lawsuits have been filed. As per company policy, we do not comment on pending litigation.” DIS spokesman Andrew Booth said Tuesday afternoon.

“We’re in very preliminary stages to see what was done wrong and what could have been done to prevent this type of injury,” Morgan said. “I’ve done a preliminary investigation to see what has been done with the fencing in the past and the fencing now. As time goes on, I’ll have a better understanding of liability.”

NASCAR itself has begun to look into the crash.

Tom Gideon, the director for safety at NASCAR’s Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., will head up the crash investigation for the governing body.

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president for competition, said Kyle Larson’s car has been impounded, though he noted, “We haven’t begun to look at it.”

Pemberton said there is no timetable for when the investigation might be completed. He said it was too early to determine if the crossover gate played a role in how the accident unfolded or if the tire that injured fans went through or over the catch fence.

That the front of Larson’s car was sheared off didn’t seem to surprise Pemberton.

“You can saw a steamship in half with those cables,” he said.

At least 28 spectators were injured by debris from Larson’s car, owned by Turner Scott Motorsports, that went airborne into the frontstretch catch fence on the last lap. Two spectators initially were listed in critical condition, one life-threatening, at Halifax Health in Daytona Beach.

Those two are believed to have been struck by a tire that detached from the car when the front end was ripped from the rest of the body, something Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick said he’s never seen happen.

Those two have since been upgraded to stable condition. All seven spectators taken to Halifax Health remain hospitalized, a hospital spokesman said on Tuesday.

Morgan said two of his clients were near the fence and were hit by debris. He said another suffered a significant fracture to the fibula, as well as other injuries.

He declined to release the names of those injured.

That a firm has been hired in this matter shouldn’t come as a surprise. Fifty lawsuits were filed in 1999 after a tire went over the catch fence at Charlotte Motor Speedway and killed three spectators during an IRL race.

Former CMS president H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler told ESPN.com the track settled for “somewhere between $10 [million] and $15 million” before the cases went to trial.

He expects similar personal injury suits from the Daytona crash.

“Oh, Lord, if 20 people were injured they’ll have 25 lawsuits,” Wheeler said of the Daytona incident. “That’s just the way it is. There’s already lawyers sitting around preparing for this.”

Track president Joie Chitwood sat in Section H of the Campbell Grandstand, where most of the injuries occurred, for the first 30 laps of Sunday’s Daytona 500 to assure fans they are safe.

Chitwood said the track is working with NASCAR on a report to determine just what happened after Larson’s car was launched into the fence, ripping a hole in the catch fence where a crossover gate was located on the frontstretch.

The fence was repaired without a new crossover gate in time for Sunday’s race.

There is a waiver on the back of tickets for NASCAR races which states that fans assume all risks. The waiver on the back of the Daytona Nationwide ticket read: “The holder of the ticket expressly assumes all risk incident of the event, whether occurring prior to, during or subsequently to the actual event, and agrees that all participants, sanctioning bodies and employees, agents, officers and directors of Daytona International Speedway, its affiliates and subsidiaries, are hereby released from any and all claims arriving from the event, including claims of negligence.”

Wheeler said from his experience that does not prevent fans from seeking damages.

“The competitor signs a release sheet and you’re competing, the track is protected,” Wheeler said. “When a spectator goes in he is not protected. All you have to do at that point is prove negligence.

“The truth of the matter is, there are potential problems that can literally [allow fans] to walk away with the speedway. You’ve got insurance, but if you have, say $10 million worth of insurance per person, and the court awards the plaintiff $15 million … at that point you’re $5 million in the hole.”

Wheeler said it is beneficial in most situations for the track to settle with the individuals.

“These things can get catastrophic in the fact if you have 30 people and you’ve got an excess declared toward judgment, say $5 million, then you may be staring down the guns of $50 or $60 million,” he said. “I don’t care who you are.”

Morgan said he has not contacted DIS at this point, but plans to do so as soon as he gathers more information.

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“It would have been a good chance,” team owner Rick Hendrick said on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. “As a matter of fact, I’m sure they might have.”

Hendrick, the owner of Hendrick Motorsports and one of the top owners of automobile dealerships in the United States, made the comment during the unveiling of the 2014 Chevrolet SS production car that will debut in NASCAR this season.

“When Mark took over, he said if we’re going to be in the sport it needs to be relevant,” Hendrick said of Mark Reuss, the president of General Motors North America. “That’s when everybody started talking and Ford and Toyota.

“But Mark pushed the button with NASCAR and I’m glad that he did. It sure paid off.”

NASCAR president Mike Helton said Chevrolet led the charge two years ago for a return to manufacturer identity that was lost with the CoT that was used from 2007 through last season.

“Mark kind of voiced that, that if we can’t be relevant we don’t race,” Hendrick said. “We had a lot riding on that, and we needed it anyway. We had beaten that COT to death.”

NASCAR introduced fuel injection to its cars last season because manufacturers wanted it, then worked with Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota to make the body of the cars look like those on the showroom floor for this season.

“They backed us in a corner and said, ‘Here’s what you guys need to think about doing,'” Helton said.

Reuss tempered his comments on whether Chevrolet would have left the sport were it not for the changes.

“Any really successful motorsports activity has to have a really good technical focus on what you’re racing, great personalities that drive it, wonderful people running the teams and the great fan bases will come,” he said.

“Once you start losing any one of those things there’s dangerous things that happen. To get these fuel injected, to get them looking like cars you can buy again … and to have people understand what they are and what they represent from a brand and driver standpoint, that’s what we were working on.”

Hendrick said it was time for the CoT to go even though he won 60 races and four titles — all with Jimmie Johnson — with it.

“Wins are one thing,” Hendrick said. “But if the fans don’t like it and the manufacturers don’t like it, we can’t survive that way. The fans grew up, I grew up, going to the track wanting to outrun the Fords and the Pontiacs and all those guys. I think we missed that.

“The CoT, we had a lot of success with it and won championships with it, but it was time to get back to our roots and a production car we could race.”

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Celtic were incensed that the officials had allowed manhandling to take place on several occasions during corner kicks in Tuesday’s Champions League clash, with Lennon saying after the match at Parkhead that he felt Mallenco has been “very pro-Juventus”.

The Bhoys now plan to submit video evidence to the governing body.

“The referee didn’t do his job and there has been a lot of talk since Tuesday night regarding it so we are looking for clarification on the referee’s decisions during the game,” he said. “We are going to compile a DVD and send it to them (UEFA) and wait and see what answers we do get.”

He added: “It’s a myth that Juventus ‘did their homework’. That’s rubbish. Juventus defend like that week-in, week-out in Serie A. If anything we had done our homework and we made sure the referee was aware of it and he was looking at it time and again and Juventus went unpunished. We needed a strong referee and we didn’t have that.

“It was blatant. I have seen photographs where the shirt was almost pulled off Gary Hooper’s back and he ends up at one stage in the goal. I admire Gary for keeping his cool – if it had been me I might have got sent off for something I would have regretted later on.

“As I said after the game, 10 or 11 years ago we got a penalty against Juventus in the exact same circumstances, the player was warned about grappling with Chris Sutton, the corner comes in he did again and the referee gave a penalty. Have the rules changes since then?

“Gianluca Vialli said we should have had two penalties, (former referees) Graham Poll and Dermot Gallagher… Trevor Francis said that even in his time in the ’80s (in Italy) it was never as blatant as what he saw the other night, so these guys can’t all be wrong and the referee right.”

Lennon also backed defender Efe Ambrose, who was at fault for two of Juve’s goals as well as passing up a good chance to score.

Team-mate Kris Commons said afterwards that the Nigeria international, who had returned from the African Nations Cup on the morning of the game, must take the blame for saying he was ready to play.

However, Lennon said: “On reflection, if I had the opportunity to change anything I wouldn’t – I would go with the same team. Efe made two basic mistakes but he had the clear-cut chance of the game for us and if he had scored then no one would have been talking about his selection.

“I spoke to him and he said he was ready to play. When you make basic mistakes like Efe did then you are open to criticism and he has apologised for his performance.

“However, he has been a fantastic signing. He has added a new dimension to the way we play and some of his performances in the Champions League this season have been of an exceptionally high standard and so he doesn’t need to apologise. We all have bad nights.”

The Northern Irishman was also happy to forgive Commons for his outspoken remarks.

“It was heat of the moment stuff,” he said. “I have spoken to Kris about it and it has been dealt with internally, and there is no bad feeling from anyone. Kris really cares and he was disappointed but he did overstep the line a little bit. Sometimes you have to keep your emotions in check.”

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His agent, Neil Sheehy, said he did not know whether Visnovsky will remain with the KHL’s Slovan Bratislava, where he played during the lockout.

Visnovsky issued a statement through Sheehy last week expressing his desire to remain in Europe. The Islanders can suspend Visnovsky for failing to report.

The KHL and NHL have an agreement that all players with NHL contracts are obligated to return to the NHL once the lockout is lifted.

Visnovsky’s case might be the first legitimate test of the sincerity of the agreement.

“The KHL has repeatedly said that they will not permit him to play, so I guess we will have to see what happens,” deputy commissioner Bill Daly said when reached via email.

According to International Ice Hockey Federation spokesperson Szymon Szemberg, the IIHF has not yet received an official letter of complaint from the NHL on the situation.

Should the league appeal to the IIHF, international hockey’s governing body, that probably would be the next step.

The IIHF’s involvement would likely only come should the NHL and KHL fail to resolve the situation on their own.

“Please keep in mind that even before IIHF regulations come into play, the NHL and the KHL have an independent memorandum of agreement drawn up specifically to avoid cases where each other contracts are not respected,” Szemberg said when reached via email. “Bill Daly has repeatedly stated that he expects the KHL to respect their side of the agreement.”

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