It’s a journalism axiom: Never bury the lead. Meaning don’t place the most important or interesting information deep within a story. With that in mind, before getting into the substance of my column, here’s the news headline from my conversation with John Force at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in late February:

JOHN FORCE SAYS NO MORE RACY PHOTOS FOR COURTNEY

“When she did the ESPN (The Magazine body issue cover), we really didn’t want to do that,” said Force. “The first year they offered it she turned it down. ESPN offered it again. In the world, 50 (percent) love you and 50 hate you. Maybe 75 love me because I work hard keeping friends. ESPN is our TV partner so how could we turn them down?

“That’s not the way she wants to go or the way she wants to be known. We’re not doing that (again.) Courtney and I agreed: That’s done. That ain’t where my family’s going to. We want to be able to walk into the Catholic church and look that priest in the face and never feel bad.” 

It’s a journalism axiom: Never bury the lead. Meaning don’t place the most important or interesting information deep within a story. With that in mind, before getting into the substance of my column, here’s the news headline from my conversation with John Force at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in late February:

JOHN FORCE SAYS NO MORE RACY PHOTOS FOR COURTNEY

“When she did the ESPN (The Magazine body issue cover), we really didn’t want to do that,” said Force. “The first year they offered it she turned it down. ESPN offered it again. In the world, 50 (percent) love you and 50 hate you. Maybe 75 love me because I work hard keeping friends. ESPN is our TV partner so how could we turn them down?

“That’s not the way she wants to go or the way she wants to be known. We’re not doing that (again.) Courtney and I agreed: That’s done. That ain’t where my family’s going to. We want to be able to walk into the Catholic church and look that priest in the face and never feel bad.”  

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Maybe, just maybe, America’s celebrity-obsessed society has its Next Big Thing.

Now, it has to find her.

Her name is Courtney Force and, well, let’s just be honest about it: She has the look, the personality, the youth and possibly the “it” factor that leads to magazine covers, red carpets, glitzy parties, TV, movies, national commercial advertising campaigns, endorsements, paparazzi and social media craziness.

A lot of slick marketers I know call this the “complete package.”

These days, that’s what it seems to take. Talent, in Courtney’s case being a winning extreme-sport Funny Car driver, is a plus but secondary to the attributes listed above.

The problem is her stage is drag racing, an activity looked down upon by the self-anointed media elite as too blue collar for its champagne and caviar tastes. Don’t for a minute think that doesn’t matter in her race to potential stardom.

Danica Patrick had the media spotlight of the Indianapolis 500 and, now, the Daytona 500 and the rest of NASCAR, events where national and non-sports journalists gather and with Big Time network TV coverage. Courtney has what? The U.S. Nationals? Sorry, but it’s not the same. And thanks to the genius that is NHRA’s decision to race into the media black hole that exists for drag racing vs. Indy and the Charlotte 600 on Memorial Day weekend, Courtney won’t be able to attract those media eyeballs by sitting on boyfriend Graham Rahal’s pit stand at Indy.

These are obstacles to overcome. To help do that, John Force -- needing to replace Castrol and Ford -- has engaged the services of powerhouse Hollywood publicity agency Rogers & Cowen. The legendary Warren Cowen represented Paul Newman, among many others, and I met Warren and worked with him briefly on a project when I was the publicist for Newman/Haas Racing. This is how, hopefully, Courtney will land on the late-night talk shows, guest spots on sitcoms, more magazine covers and red carpets and do other neat-o things like fly with the Navy’s Blue Angels.

Fair or not, it’s not an over-exaggeration to say she just might be carrying the future of John Force Racing and NHRA on her blonde-hair covered shoulders.

“If I happen to be the (one) who can help with that, fine,” Courtney told me during a conversation outside her dad’s motorhome before the CARQUEST Auto Parts Nationals. “I guess that adds a little bit of pressure. I’m excited to work with Rogers & Cowen to hopefully promote not only the John Force Racing team and the sport of NHRA, but me as a person, as well.

“That was kind of the thing with ESPN The Magazine. It was kind of going out of the mainstream. Obviously, a lot of people have their opinion on it. It took me a long time to figure out if I wanted to do it or not. I turned it down the first time. They came back and asked again and I said yes.

“I work hard as an athlete and that’s why I do it. People just see us drive and think it is easy. We can use magazines and articles to get us out as persons. After that I was in a Self magazine article about fitness. If you can reach a different audience, whether it’s me as a person or our team or any driver out here, it’s a positive thing for our sport.”

I’ve opined before that Courtney needs to make good decisions on-and-off the track. Especially, as I said to her at Wild Horse, at a time when there is such a thing as TMZ Sports.

“That makes me nervous to hear because I haven’t put it into that perspective,” admitted the Traxxas Mustang driver.

“You always have to be cautious on the track and off. You do run into fans who know who you are and have to be on your best behavior. I kind of grew up knowing that. I do want to set a good example because you’re representing a team and yourself and a bunch of sponsors. So it’s a little added pressure.”

I asked Courtney to talk expansively about the pluses and perils of celebrity.

“Once you go to the mainstream audience they see you as the athlete Courtney Force, that’s when everything changes, I think,” she said. “You have to make the decision if you want that or not, letting your personal life cross over into that. But we got a little taste of that with the Driving Force (TV) show. We kind of got pushed into it but we didn’t have paparazzi. It wasn’t that extreme.

“I love what I do, and if it makes people come over to our sport, I think that’s awesome. To take on that celebrity status, I think it would be exciting (but) it definitely could be nerve-racking. I would never want it to be a distraction. If you become a celebrity for what you do, that’s a whole other thing, but I don’t want to have people forget about who I am and what I do out here.

“I think it would be fun unless it would interfere with my performance. I would have to take a step back away from it. My dad would probably be, ‘Do it, do it,’ but racing is everything to me.

“I think that (celebrity) would be awesome. It would make me feel they are noticing what we’re doing over here, noticing what I do and what I’ve accomplished. People know you in your racing uniform, but I want them to know me, as well. I think that would be a positive thing and huge for our sport. I know my dad gets recognized in his uniform or not. You know you’ve made it.”

John Force, the 16-time Funny Car titlist, then made an admission.

“Why do you think I wore that champ jacket all the time? I want them to know I’m the champion. You build that. Pretty soon you’ve got the guy in the barber chair or the guy in Anne’s Pretzel Store, ‘Hey, John Force!’”

The loss of two major corporate backers seems to have been a sobering reminder to Force of how fragile board-room relationships can be. But the need for fresh funds to keep open the doors of the family business also seems to have refocused and energized him (if that’s possible.)

“For women, the time is now,” John said. “The time is here. Shirley (Muldowney) opened that door. I don’t want to hold her (Courtney) back. We’re taking Courtney down the right road.

“NHRA, we need to fight back. We’re up against the X-Games. We’re up against the Olympics. It isn’t like in the old days and you’d say, ‘What are you doing Saturday?’ ‘Well, there’s a baseball game and there’s a drag race.’ Now there’s 50 options. It doesn’t end. Or you can stay home and do it on Twitter or iPod.

“We’ve got it the hardest we’ve ever had. The TV package, like anything, needs to be better. What we’re doing is I have a TV show I’m working on right now. We’ve got to give more now than we’ve ever given.

“I’ve got to move and move fast.”

Ditto for Courtney in the chase for the revenue-generator that celebrity can be. She should be OK with that because, for the famed Force family, moving fast is a way of life.   

Follow Michael Knight on Twitter: @SpinDoctor500