France cautions second Vegas date no certainty (cont'd)

"You're going to have some objections when you go in to some of these places and try to build these major facilities. You have to work your way through those and build community support. I don't expect them to do that easily; I don't expect them to do that in every market that they think can host a NASCAR event. But do I think we will have success in one or more of those markets over the long term? Yes, it is my expectation that we will."

France admitted that recent criticism of NASCAR and ISC's pursuit of getting a track built in Washington state, just outside of Seattle, was disappointing. But he added that it isn't like that sort of thing hasn't happened previously in other markets where tracks eventually were built and have become successful.

"As a matter of fact, go back to someplace like Kansas City -- and it was very close to not being built," France said. "They had eminent domain issues at the time, trying to convince people that development in that part of Kansas was important. Not everybody agreed with that, and it got very close to not getting done.

"But it did get done and now it's a very successful development, a very successful venue."

Of the three new markets into which ISC is looking into expanding, France somewhat surprisingly mentioned Denver as the one that appears to have the most promise at the moment.

"Denver is looking like they have a little bit of momentum there," France said. "And I actually think New York will one day, in the near term, have a little bit more promise than it currently has now. Those are the things ISC is working on, and we're going to let them do that work to build community interest."

As an example that Smith needs to exercise patience in his pursuit of a second race date for Las Vegas, France mentioned Phoenix International Raceway -- an ISC-owned track that began hosting Cup events in 1988 and didn't get a second date awarded until 2005.

"Phoenix went a long time without a second date, and they thought they were deserving of it. And, oh, by the way, they were deserving of it. We would have liked to have had a second date in Phoenix, which is another great racing market for us, many years ago. It just didn't happen as fast as we wanted," France said.

"There is what we want, and then there is the practical side of what we can do. That's the reality of it."