By Steve Schwarz, Motorsports Editor

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - If I were Brian France, CEO and chairman of NASCAR for the day, here are the things I would change about my favorite sport.

1) The 43 fastest cars should race. If Tiger Woods misses the cut, he goes home. Why should it be any different for Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Jeff Gordon?

2) In February Mr. France promised to go "back to our basics." Since when are NASCAR's roots located near Hollywood (twice), Montreal, Mexico City, the pacific northwest or New York City?

3) A driver must be allowed a couple of minutes to cool down and maybe see the replay of what happened before a microphone is stuck in his face. Otherwise, expect more headlines such as the Tony Stewart vs. Goodyear at Atlanta or Kevin Harvick vs. Tony Stewart at Bristol.

4) In almost every race we hear that the drivers have to deal with the setting sun in their eyes and the troubles they are having seeing. That's an easy fix - start the races earlier. Most NASCAR fans I know liked the 12 o'clock and 1 o'clock starts, but of course television wants NASCAR as a lead in for its prime time shows. Guess who wins that battle?

5) When televising a short track race, for instance Bristol, going to three minutes of commercials with just 25 laps remaining would be outlawed. Under green-flag racing, drivers complete almost four laps per minute so we missed almost half of the remainder of the race. Luckily for FOX, there was a caution flag giving the announcers time to replay what was missed and set up for the exciting finish.

6) The new NASCAR leaderboard should be banned. If the goal was to freeze up every couple of laps so that a fan would be forced to purchase the "Pit Command" product, then NASCAR achieved their goal. Bring back the old leaderboard - it worked! Shouldn't there be coverage for the Craftsman Truck Series too?

7) When ESPN pushes NASCAR to ESPN Classic as it did during Saturday's rain delay in the Nationwide Series race, it means that many fans will not see what is going on because "Classic" is not available to as many people as ESPN or ESPN2.

Despite all the things I think need fixing, it looks like a great year to be following the Sprint Cup Series. Toyota is for real, Roush Fenway Racing is back, Hendrick Motorsports will find themselves very soon, RCR just completed a sweep at Bristol and a Dodge won the Daytona 500.

All in the first five weeks!

03/17 12:00:06 ET