In an attempt to spice up qualifying, pit road speeds that are strictly enforced in races as a safety measure will be lifted for Friday night’s three-lap trip around Charlotte Motor Speedway that includes a mandatory four-time stop.

Greg Biffle anticipates cars will come down pit road in excess of 100 mph — well over the 45 mph used in races — with drivers that push the limit losing control and ending up in the infield grass.

“Practice is the thing to watch, not the real qualifying,” the Roush Fenway Racing driver said during an appearance Wednesday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. “The thing is, you don’t know [what will happen] until you try it.

“It’s like, ‘Hey, can you make it from the balcony into the pool without hitting the pool deck?’ There’s one way to figure it out. You can do all the calculating you want, but you’ve just got to try it.”

Another tweak announced Wednesday will allow the winner of the Sprint Fan Vote from the Showdown to advance into the main event without being on the lead lap as long as the car is in “raceable” condition as determined by Sprint Cup Series director John Darby.

Some have dubbed that the “Danica Patrick Rule,” noting that the popular Stewart-Haas Racing driver could benefit.

Patrick has finished on the lead lap in only two of 11 races this season.

“I don’t need to say any names,” David Ragan said when asked if the rule was made for any driver in particular. “We can all assume and make pretty good guesses. But there’s usually good reasons for making any rule change.”

Ragan doesn’t like the rule, even though officials said prior to last season the winner of the fan vote didn’t have to be on the lead lap.

“I don’t think that’s right,” said Ragan, who earned his way into the All-Star race with a surprise victory at Talladega Superspeedway. “You need to be competitive. It’s a contradicting rule. So you can’t be torn up and get in, but if you’re slow and not on the lead lap, why should you be in the All-Star race? In my opinion, that’s not a good rule for the intent of the All-Star race.

“The All-Star race is supposed to be about the best of the best.”

That will be the case in qualifying, where it will take skill to get on and off pit road at a higher than normal speed.

“Heck, we had trouble sliding through our pit box going 45 mph, so I can only imagine,” Ragan said. “Watch out Kurt Busch. I know he’s going to be coming down hard.”

Pit road limits have been set since 1991, the year after a Ricky Rudd’s car spun 180 degrees on pit road in Atlanta and slammed into Bill Elliott’s car. Elliott’s tire changer, Mike Rich, died after being caught in between the cars.

Other cars will not be on pit road during All-Star qualifying, and crew members will not be allowed to come over the wall until the car is stopped, which is not the case in a race.

“We’ll do that only for qualifying and only for the All-Star race because we can control the environment and it’ll be very clean down there,” NASCAR president Mike Helton said. “It’s an opportunity to do something on a weekend that is known for different stuff.”

The race will consist of four 20-lap segments and a 10-lap shootout with the winner collecting $1 million. Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman Bruton Smith is offering another $1 million if a driver can win all five segments.

But qualifying could be the biggest spectacle.

“I can promise you guys are going to be off in the grass,” Biffle said. “I may be one of them.”

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NASCAR’s vice president of racing operations said on Monday it is doubtful the race would have been restarted after being stopped for rain on Lap 122 of a scheduled 188-lap event were it not for the sport’s new compressed-air drying system.

“If that was a year ago, it is highly doubtful that race gets restarted,” Steve O’Donnell told ESPN.com. “That track obviously is the toughest on the circuit to be able to dry. We were able to shave about an hour off [the drying process].”

Carl Edwards led when the race was red-flagged for about three hours and 36 minutes due to two storms that soaked the 2.66-mile track. The race ended under near darkness with one attempt at a green-white-checkered finish, which Ragan took advantage of to give Front Row Motorsports the unexpected win.

O’Donnell said Air Titan reduced the drying time from the normal three-plus hours to just under two. While that is not the 80 percent reduction officials hope to ultimately get from the device, they were pleased with the results that they believe would have been better had temperatures been warmer.

That the machine helped reduce moisture while rain continued, the first time it has been used in that situation, also was a positive.

“I’d give it a B,” O’Donnell said. “We got the race in, which is the ultimate goal.”

O’Donnell said it’s doubtful Saturday’s Nationwide Series race that had to be cut short by a few laps would have been run on the scheduled day at all were it not for the Air Titan. Looking at weather conditions in Talladega on Monday, he said the Cup and Nationwide races could have been pushed to as late as Tuesday.

“It definitely feels good to give fans a chance to see the finish of the race on Sunday instead of racing today when the weather was iffy as well,” O’Donnell said.

NASCAR has been using jet-fuel dryers since the mid-1970s. A few years ago, chairman Brian France challenged the Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., to come up with a way to shorten drying time to lessen the inconvenience on fans and television partners.

The Air Titan concept was fast-forwarded after the 2012 Daytona 500 was postponed from Sunday to Monday.

The device was introduced during speed weeks prior to this year’s Daytona 500 where rain wasn’t an issue. It was used on a smaller scale at half-mile Martinsville Speedway to dry the track for the first day of practice.

But it wasn’t put to the full test until Saturday and Sunday at Talladega.

“We’ve got more work to do for sure,” O’Donnell said. “But the end goal is to ensure the fans that paid to see the race get to see it on the days scheduled. Obviously, we accomplished that.”

Air Titan works by using compressed air to push water off the racing surface and onto the track apron, where vacuum trucks remove the moisture. Jet dryers follow to blow off any excess water.

“We’re still in Phase 1,” O’Donnell said. “But we made some good progress. We’ve got to work on the power source to see how we can speed up the ability to get water off the track. Talladega really was the best test to date to see how it works under the worst conditions. Looking at the total drying time, we feel we cut an hour out of it, which ultimately enabled us to get back to racing.”

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The 2004 Sprint Cup champion came to Indy this week to test himself on the 2.5-mile oval in one of Michael Andretti’s IndyCars. He wound up completing all three phases of the rookie test, the last requiring him to turn 10 laps in excess of 210 mph. He posted a lap of 214 mph early in the practice that lasted a little more than five hours.

Busch’s name does not actually appear on Indy’s entry list yet.

But he has three advantages over other drivers looking for late rides — a fitted seat, a complete rookie test and an interested team owner with an available car.

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The Sprint Cup rookie will drive for Turner Scott Motorsports, which also fielded her ride in the opener at Daytona International Speedway.

Patrick has only one start at Talladega, finishing 13th in last year’s Nationwide race for JR Motorsports.

“I’m thrilled that I get another chance to drive the No. 34,” Patrick siad in a release. “We had a great run going in Daytona, and I’m hoping we can pick up where we left off.”

Patrick is 26th in the Sprint Cup standings where she is battling Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for rookie of the year.

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Busch won his third consecutive Nationwide race by leading 91 of 200 laps Friday night at Texas, where he became the first six-time winner in the series at the 1½-mile, high-banked track.

“It’s fast. It just suits right into my style,” Busch said. “It’s such a fun race. … It’s also being part of this JGR team.”

While driving a car he owned last season, Busch didn’t win in the Nationwide Series. This year back in the Gibbs ride, since having engine problems and finishing 32nd in the opener at Daytona, he has four wins and a runner-up finish to push his series victory record to 55.

Busch, who described his Toyota as “flawless,” Busch finished 2.27 seconds ahead of Brad Keselowski in his Ford. Austin Dillon finished third and Dale Earnhardt Jr. fourth, both in Chevrolets.

“Definitely Kyle is really strong, he’s a great driver for sure. But I think you have to look at the cars they have at Gibbs,” Keselowski said. “I think last year was a bit of an eye-opener for us. … Joey (Logano) won a bunch of races in that same car, and Kyle had the reverse fortune. I think that shows you the effort that Gibbs puts into the series, and they’ve been rewarded as they should for that effort.”

Logano was a nine-time winner in 22 Nationwide races for Gibbs last season. Busch did have nine top-five finishes without winning in his car last season, and now is the first driver to win four of the first six Nationwide races to start a season.

Even Busch acknowledged that the guys at Joe Gibbs racing sure make it seem easy.

“If you put an elite driver in an elite car, you should get elite results and that’s what you’ve seen,” Keselowski said.

Busch now has 110 victories in NASCAR’s three top series, including 25 in the Sprint Cup Series and 30 in trucks.

Right before the start of the Nationwide race, Busch won the pole for Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race at Texas.

After sweeping both Nationwide races in Texas in 2008 and 2009, Busch won the spring race in 2010 before finishing second that fall to end his Lone Star State winning streak.

Friday night’s race featured a Texas-record 11 leaders and 22 lead changes. Busch led five times, including the final 31 laps after going back in front out during the last caution.

Sam Hornish Jr. maintained the series points lead despite finishing 34th. He made contact with Jeremy Clements and spun into the infield grass with just more than 55 laps left, doing significant damage to his car.

His lead over Regan Smith shrunk from 20 to two. Smith finished seventh.

Alex Bowman, who was dealing with flu-like symptoms when he won the pole earlier Friday, finished 14th.

Eric McClure got out of his Toyota early in the race because of his own illness. He was replaced by Jeff Green, who had already parked his car after three laps. He drove McClure’s car (14) to a 30th-place finish.

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The new nominees announced on Wednesday are 1999 Sprint Cup champion and ESPN analyst Dale Jarrett, engine builder Maurice Petty, Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman Bruton Smith, 1960 Cup champion Rex White and five-time NASCAR weekly series national champion Larry Phillips.

Jarrett is the son of two-time Cup champion Ned Jarrett, a member of the 2011 Hall of Fame class. Dale Jarrett won 32 times, including three Daytona 500s.

Petty was the chief engine builder for Petty Enterprises. He is the brother of Hall of Famer Richard Petty, a seven-time Winston Cup champion and NASCAR’s all-time winner with 200 victories.

Smith built Charlotte Motor Speedway and is known as an innovator among track owners, introducing condominiums, VIP suites and club-like restaurants to the sport. As the chairman of SMI, he owns eight tracks that host 12 Cup events.

“It is a great honor to be nominated as a candidate for the NASCAR Hall of Fame,” Smith said in a release. “Bill France Jr. once asked me to help him build NASCAR and I have literally been building monuments to the sport for my entire lifetime. Millions of people have attended NASCAR events at our speedways over the years and we’ve tried to be creative and innovative in an effort to help push the sport to a higher level. It’s always been a perfect fit for me because I love racing and I love NASCAR fans.”

White was considered one of the sport’s most consistent drivers, recording top-five finishes in nearly half of his 233 races. He finished outside the top 10 only 30 percent of the time in collecting 28 wins.

Phillips won an amazing 226 times en route to an unprecedented five wins in NASCAR’s Whelen All-American Series.

The five nominees join 20 others previously selected by a 21-person nominating committee.

The five 2014 inductees will be selected from the list of 25 by a 54-member voting panel for the Hall’s fifth class on May 22.

The entire list of 25 includes:

• Red Byron: First champion in NASCAR’s premier series now known as the Sprint Cup series in 1949.

• Richard Childress: 11-time car owner champion in NASCAR’s three national series, including six with Dale Earnhardt in the Cup series.

• Jerry Cook: Six-time NASCAR Modified champion.

• H. Clay Earles: Founder of Martinsville Speedway.

• Tim Flock — Two-time Cup series champion.

• Ray Fox: Legendary engine builder and owner of cars driven by Buck Baker, Junior Johnson and others.

• Anne Bledsoe France: Helped build the sport with husband, Bill France Sr.

• Rick Hendrick: 13-time car owner champion in NASCAR’s three national series.

• Jack Ingram: Two-time champion in NASCAR’s second-tier series (now Nationwide) and three-time Late Model Sportsman champion.

• Bobby Isaac: 1970 Cup champion.

• Dale Jarrett: 1999 Cup champion and three-time Daytona 500 winner.

• Fred Lorenzen — Winner of 26 Cup races, including the Daytona 500 and World 600.

• Raymond Parks: NASCAR’s first champion car owner.

• Benny Parsons: 1973 Cup champion.

• Maurice Petty: Chief engine builder for Petty Enterprises.

• Larry Phillips: Only five-time NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national champion.

• Les Richter: Former NASCAR executive, former president of Riverside International Raceway.

• Fireball Roberts: 33 Cup wins, including the 1962 Daytona 500, and the sport’s first true superstar.

• T. Wayne Robertson: Helped raise NASCAR popularity as R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company senior vice president.

• Wendell Scott: First and only black driver to win a Cup race in 1964.

• Ralph Seagraves: Formed Winston-NASCAR partnership as an executive with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.

• O. Bruton Smith: Builder of Charlotte Motor Speedway and chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc. that owns eight NASCAR tracks that host 12 Cup events.

• Curtis Turner: Early personality known as the “Babe Ruth of stock car racing.”

• Joe Weatherly: Two-time Cup champion.

• Rex White: 1960 Cup champion.

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Johnson led a career-best 346 laps Sunday and pulled away on a restart with eight laps to go for his eighth career victory on the shortest track in the Sprint Cup Series, taking over third place on the career victories list on NASCAR’s oldest track.

The only drivers ahead of him? Hall of famers Richard Petty with 15 wins, and Darrell Waltrip with 11.

“Probably the most calm, relaxed thought-out weekend that we’ve ever had as the 48 (team),” Johnson said.

From the time he rolled his car onto the track for the first practice Friday until the final restart, Johnson had a dominant car, and knew it. And with his track record here, even when things seemed to take a bad turn, he and his team trusted history.

“We stuck to our game plan and knew what we wanted to have in the race and stayed patient, and it was tough to do at times, but it certainly worked out well,” the five-time series champion said. “And in the race, we had to adjust on the fly.”

No team does it better at Martinsville, and while Johnson said the final caution came at an inopportune time because he’d built a big lead over Clint Bowyer, he also realized it may have saved him from having to fight off teammate Jeff Gordon.

“Jeff on the long run probably had the car to beat,” he said. “Jeff has a really good line here on the long run, and he started catching me before the last caution and I was thinking, ‘Man, if this stays green, this could be a Jeff Gordon day.”

Instead, the caution flew on lap 487.

Johnson picked the inside line for the final restart with Bowyer on the outside, Gordon behind him and Kyle Busch to his outside, and Johnson got a clean break for the lead into Turn 1, his top priority to build some separation for the finish.

“I felt like if I could get two or three corners and maintain the lead on Clint, I could stretch it back out again,” he said.

Bowyer slid into second and Busch, who tried to make a move on the outside line, instead got hung up out there as Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kasey Kahne, who restarted fifth, went underneath to take fourth.

Nothing changed the rest of the way and the top five finished in those positions.

Gordon, too, was thinking he had a chance until Kurt Busch crashed, bringing out the 12th and final caution.

“I obviously didn’t want to see a short run there at the end,” he said.

The victory made team owner Rick Hendrick’s organization the winningest team in Martinsville history with 20, breaking a tie it had with the Petty organization.

Gordon, who was tied with Johnson and Rusty Wallace with seven victories on the 0.526-mile oval, said he knew it would be a tough day when Johnson won the pole for the second race in a row here because of the pit road advantage.

“You give him that No. 1 pit stall here at Martinsville, it’s almost impossible,” Gordon said.

While Johnson dominated, there were times it looked as if the race might go in another direction.

Matt Kenseth, who has struggled at Martinsville throughout his career, actually passed Johnson for the lead and led for 96 laps.

Mark Martin, driving for the injured Denny Hamlin and equally disdainful of the venue, moved into fourth place after taking a chance and getting just two tires on a pit stop, but then faded quickly.

Martin, mindful of Hamlin’s four career victories at Martinsville, finished a disappointing 10th.

“I did not fill Denny Hamlin’s shoes, I can tell you that much,” he said.

Tony Stewart, who said earlier in the week he thought it would be funny to watch Danica Patrick try to navigate her way around the track, got passed by his rookie driver with 19 laps to go. Patrick finished 12, Stewart 17th.

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Martin, who drives a part-time Sprint Cup schedule for Michael Waltrip Racing, will drive only at Martinsville on April 7 in JGR’s No. 11 Sprint Cup Toyota. Hamlin is expected to need six weeks to recover from the injury, suffered in a last-lap crash last weekend at Auto Club Speedway.

Brian Vickers, who drives a full-time Nationwide Series schedule for JGR, will assume Hamlin’s schedule starting April 13 at Texas Motor Speedway. Hamlin is likely to return for the May 11 race at Darlington but could be back a week earlier at Talladega.

“Obviously having to find someone to fill in for Denny is not an ideal situation to have to be in, and when you start a process like this you obviously begin to look at the drivers that are not only available but also able to drive for your race team and manufacturer. We were a bit premature in determining Mark’s status past Martinsville, however,” JGR president J.D. Gibbs said in a statement. “We’re real happy to have the opportunity to get Brian in our Cup cars and with him driving Nationwide for us we think we have some continuity there that is beneficial.

“We really appreciate everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing and Toyota for working with us through this process. The good thing for us is that we have drivers the caliber of Mark and Brian to help fill in until Denny comes back.”

Martin and Vickers split driving duties for the No. 55 Toyota Sprint Cup car.

JGR had released a statement Thursday saying Martin was “to drive the No. 11 FedEx Toyota until Hamlin returns.”

“Obviously, we’re not exactly sure how long that is going to take, but Mark’s career speaks for itself and our team knows it will have the opportunity to compete for a win every week,” Gibbs said in the release.

Soon after the release went out, sources said, JGR officials were contacted by MWR officials to say Martin would be in the No. 11 at Martinsville and then return to the No. 55 at Texas to resume his part-time MWR schedule. Martin was not scheduled to drive the No. 55 at Martinsville.

Michael Waltrip told ESPN.com that his team was trying to help its Toyota partner by offering Martin for Martinsville.

“We said that we wanted to help, and by helping we would offer up Mark for Martinsville because Brian was racing there [in the No. 55],” Waltrip said. “I guess we just never had the whole deal done when the [JGR] press release went out.

“All we were doing was offering help. We agreed that Mark was driving at Martinsville, and we were working through what it looked like after that. Before we got it all figured out, a press release was put out. I guess it said Mark would drive it until Denny was better, and that was just not what we agreed to yet.”

MWR put out a release late Friday afternoon stating its plans.

“Mark is a big part of our organization and is committed to our sponsors, especially Aaron’s and Toyota,” Waltrip said in the release. “We have a lot of goals yet to reach this year and we are very focused on accomplishing them.”

Multiple sources said Aaron’s, the primary sponsor on the No. 55, preferred Martin in the car for his scheduled races because the company has activated sponsorship around the 54-year-old driver.

Vickers has recorded two top-10 finishes through the first five races of the Nationwide season. He has 264 career Sprint Cup starts over his 11-year career, posting two wins, 24 top-5 finishes and 63 top-10s.

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“In my opinion, it was just hard racing,” Earnhardt said during Tuesday’s national conference call. “The guy is leading the race, he’s trying to do what he can to win.”

Stewart didn’t agree.

The three-time Cup champion cut off Logano’s car on pit road after the race and went after him physically before being separated by crew members and officials. He then went on a verbal tirade against the 22-year-old Penske Racing driver.

“He has that right, he has the choice to do that,” Stewart said of blocking. “If he ever turns down across in front of me again, I don’t care what lap it is, he won’t make it through the other end of it.

“I’m tired of these guys doing that stuff. Especially out of a kid that’s been griping about everybody else and then he does that the next week. He sent Denny [Hamlin] to the hospital and screwed our day up.”

Stewart, who finished 22nd, was referring to a last-lap crash involving Logano and Hamlin racing for the lead. Hamlin, who wrecked Logano a week earlier at Bristol, suffered a compression fracture in his lower back when his car hit a concrete inside retaining wall and will miss up to five races.

Earnhardt understands there are some who get more upset about blocking than others. He’s just not one of them.

“Every driver is going to have a different opinion,” said Earnhardt, who took advantage of the last-lap crash to finish second and move into the points lead. “I might block in certain situations. I would expect and accept to be blocked in certain situations.

“But you’ve got to give me racetrack. You’ve got to give me somewhere to run. You can’t just run me up into the fence. You’ve got to give me a lane. If you give me a reasonable amount of racetrack to race on, then I really can’t complain in regards to what you’re trying to do to maintain the position.”

Earnhardt said the time of the race also is a factor when it comes to blocking.

“Is it time to be blocking?” he said. “Is the position that important at that moment in time? Again, everybody will have a different opinion. But when somebody blocks me, I’m not blown away by the notion.

“You know, I’m not going to say that I’ve never blocked anybody because I have, and you do, you will. Being in certain situations, that’s your only alternative. But you’ve got to give people racing room or expect to get turned around or expect to make a few people upset.”

Stewart caused a 25-car pileup in which Earnhardt suffered a concussion that sidelined him for two Chase races defending the lead in the closing lap at Talladega last fall.

Stewart, who has been outspoken about blocking several times the past few years, apologized after the race.

“I just screwed up,” he said. “I turned down and cut across Michael [Waltrip] and crashed the whole field. It was my fault, blocking and trying to stay where I was at.”

Logano never got a chance to discuss what happened with Stewart. He said after the race he had to slow down so as not to jump the race leader on the restart, and that when he did Stewart was able to get a jump on him.

“I had to throw the block there,” Logano said. “That was the race for the lead. I felt if [Stewart] got underneath me, that was going to be the end of my opportunity to win the race.”

Logano said he planned to tell Stewart the same thing when they spoke. Asked if he was willing to talk to Logano, Stewart said, “Hell no.”

“After he threw the water bottle at me like a little girl, we’ll go at it now,” he said.

Stewart also referred to Logano as a spoiled rich kid who never worked a day in his life. That brought up another issue that Earnhardt discussed in relation to how his 12-year-old niece Karsyn has many of the same financial advantages Logano had as she pursues a career in racing.

“Hopefully, she’s talented enough, no matter what your background or what your path is to where you are … if you have talent, you belong, and you earn respect through that talent,” he said. “If you’re really good at your job and really good at what you do, it won’t matter how you got there.”

Opinions will vary on that just as they will on blocking. Stewart’s teammate, Ryan Newman, called blocking a “chicken way to drive.”

“It’s just something I don’t do,” he said. “If you’ve got a run on me, take it. If I can get through the corner better than you, then we’ll race, but blocking is an IndyCar form or F1 form or an open-wheel type move it seems like.

“It’s not to say they don’t do it in NASCAR; obviously they do. But to me, it’s just a chicken way of driving and not very respectful for the guys around you. You’re there to race. You’re not there to block.”

Newman didn’t know if Stewart and Logano had talked or planned to before Sunday’s race at Martinsville, but he said you have to be aware if they’re around each other on the half-mile track where contact is expected.

“You have to know what’s going on and watch out for the dramas, but at the same time I have a race of my own to run, and a part of that is watching out for what’s going on, whether it’s something that’s carried over from the past few weeks or something that has happened that day,” Newman said. “Going to have to keep tabs on who turns who or who’s angry or where’s everybody at on their scorecards as you go through a race like Martinsville sometimes.”

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“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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