NASCAR in 5 from the Canadian Motorsports Expo

Coverage of the Canadian Motorsports Expo on NASCAR in 5. Ryan Newman, John Bickford, and Alex Nagy are among the guests on this season 2 premiere. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Transcription of John Bickford interview: Bryce Turner: I'm here now with John Bickford, Vice President and General Manager of Jeff Gordon Incorporated, and he's also Jeff's stepfather. Now, John, in what way are you and Jeff Gordon working with the Canadian Motor Speedway? John Bickford: Well, Jeff is actually the...of the speedway, so he wants to make sure he designs a track that races side-by-side...high entertainment, high value. Something that the driver's like. If we have something the fans like, the the drivers like, we're goona have great racing, that's why Jeff's involved. BT: Perfect mixture indeed. And with support from Jeff Gordon and many race fans, do you think Canadian Motor Speedway will host a Cup race in its first year of competition? JB: Absolutely not. That would likely never happen up here because just the way the Cup program works, it would take a very unique situation. I think in the first year your goona see smaller series; ARCA, Canadian Tire Series, something like that, we will likely see other small series racing, and you know break the track...and when you look back at other tracks; Iowa Speedway, Las Vegas, we'll follow a similar season and we look forward to that national travelling series, of major sanctioning bodies, will arrive here within the second or third year, as soon as we can, but you never know, we're looking forward to all that. BT: So, sort of like Kentucky Speedway, work its way up there, when they got a Cup race, but hopefully sooner we'll get one here. JB: Absolutely. Well, you have to study how Kentucky Speedway acquired their Cup race; they weren't issued a Cup race, they bought a track and moved the race so, the race from Atlanta moved to Kentucky because the track was owned by Speedway Motorsports Incorporated; this track is unique, it's an independently owned facility here in Canada. We are building a product where...so, the sanctioning body will want to race at a first class racetrack where there are first class fans, and we've got all that here in Canada. BT: And, what about the race season, are you looking forward to 2014? JB: ...The race season's goona be unique, I think 2014 with its new qualifying, a new points system, I think its goona be exciting. BT: And, what are your thoughts on the new Chase format? JB: I think the new Chase format...it puts a little more emphasis on winning, but I think for all the drivers it's really about trying to win anyways, so I think it's fair for everyone. It's new, it's different; new and different often creates allot of excitement...so we'll just have to see, it's a little early. BT: And, I've got to ask, what do you think of this new paint scheme with Axalta for the 24? JB: I think that this paint scheme represents the car that Jeff drove in 1980, and Jeff said it the other day, that this was his most favorite paint scheme in a long time because he likes the black with flames. When he was eight years old he had a car black with flames. So this kind of brings back memories of days when he had one of his most exciting quarter midgets. So, I think we might see a little bit more energy out of Jeff...driving this new car. BT: Alright, Jeff for Championship this year, definitely. Thanks for speaking with me. JB: Thankyou. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Correction: The spelling of the second interviewee's name is incorrect; the correct spelling is: Greg Bartosch. I apologize about the mistake.