There is an old adage in racing, that cheering isn’t allowed in the media center. Apparently the same thing needs to become true about the executive offices of NASCAR.

At the NASCAR awards banquet, Brian France brusquely handed the Championship ring to Martin Truex Jr. and without a second look, walked off stage.

Remember when I said yesterday that NASCAR executives fail at being authentic?

Well, here’s Brian France proving my point last night at the Cup Awards banquet. What the hell. pic.twitter.com/dGmZS6yiTD

— Nick Bromberg (@NickBromberg) December 1, 2017

Victoria Beaver

In a perfect world for NASCAR’s executives, a budding Young Gun or America’s sweetheart Dale Earnhardt Jr. would’ve been named champion, but that’s not how the cards were dealt. That’s not how the racers raced.

Truex dominated and was rightly named Monster Energy Cup Champion after the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The potential problem for Francis and boys is that Truex is not the big entertainer that they need him to be to sell fans on the 2018 season. He’s not Kevin “Happy” Harvick or Kyle “Twitter Rant” Busch. Heck, he’s not even “Bad Brad” Keselowski.

During Thursday night’s award ceremony, the third-generation leader was visibly dismissive of the series champion. If he wanted to make it any clearer that NASCAR wasn’t happy, he would’ve thrown the ring at Truex.

At this time last year Jimmy Johnson was being handed his eighth ring to weigh down his heavy knuckles and statistically he deserved his win far less than Truex. Johnson made it to the round of four by a series of automotive “Hail Mary’s” but then rebounded with a legendary performance where he raced from the back of the field to win Homestead, got one good restart at the end of the Ford 400, and the championship.

That’s the story NASCAR wanted again this year. The “Post-Earnhardt” panic has reached NASCAR’s top levels and they’re clearly scared of what Truex as Champion will bring them in terms of numbers.

While Truex is the type of driver that fans should love; persistent, passionate, and good. He does the one thing that viewers hate.

He wins.

Too much.

With eight wins and so many stage points that we’ve all lost count somehow the idea, of Truex winning became old hat for many viewers.

Dan Beaver

Unless they were diehard fans to begin with, the folks in the stands that pay the bills don’t like drivers who win too often. There is a simple reason for that. Those dominant drivers are taking victories away from the fans’ actual favorites.

Earlier this year, Donny Schatz was roundly booed at introduction and joked that he couldn’t believe they were being so mean to the trophy girls that accompanied him on the stage before the Kings Royal.

It shouldn’t be, but it’s natural.

Fans also love dark horses and so should the sanctioning bodies. Long shots bring new fans to the sport. And that is essentially what Truex and Furniture Row are. Or were until this year. By winning practically all the 1.5-mile races, they lost that status and France’s reaction was an involuntary jerk of his knee.

Truex’s success this season was not Schatz winning a ninth championship. It was the story of a mid-level team finding their stride and taking NASCAR by storm. His success week-to-week should’ve been applauded, but instead was treated as a wrench in the machine. This view was clearly shown in the lack of respect France showed Truex, that’s true—but France’s attitude may be more typical of the racing public in general.

Personality should not come into play, but it does.

A driver who is unable to engender strong emotions can be easily forgotten between races. That is not true of Harvick, Busch, or Keselowski. They are remembered and hated from week to week, which brings the fans back to the next race to hopefully see them beaten.

And France was not reacting to Truex on a personal level, he was most likely concerned with how to make a silk purse from this particular sow’s ear. Perhaps he was not stomping off in derision, but rushing back to the offices in Daytona Beach, FL to start working on next year’s marketing plan.