France: Rumors not true, NASCAR is not for sale (cont'd)

"We think our fans are tuning into different things during the week and maybe watching a little bit less of the actual races themselves. But when you're talking about ratings, you have to put it into context. We're still the No. 2 sport on television. Everyone has had ratings erosion -- and I'm not talking about just sports, but across the board in prime time ... American Idol and some big franchises like that.

"Obviously with the Internet, other choices are there. It's clearly harder to build an audience and grow an audience. But we like our position, where we're at. We do want to work harder in the future with our fan base that likes NASCAR the most, our die-hard fans, to make sure we make good on our original promise that while we experience a lot of growth, a lot of taking advantage of opportunities, that we make sure we still focus on our core fans a lot. We like our position going forward."

According to a recent report in USA Today, this season's Cup races that were televised on FOX, TNT, ESPN and ABC have averaged 4.2 percent of U.S. TV households -- a 9 percent drop from last year and a 21 percent decline since 2005. But NASCAR still ranks solidly behind only the National Football League as the second-biggest television draw in sports.

"We try to keep it in context. We know where we're at. We know the areas where we can improve," France said. "What's important to me is to have a general understanding of what's going on in all of sports. ... When we do that, we understand that this is a very strong sport with a very strong fan base.

"We also need to take note of a couple of other things: we've had more commercial interest in the sport than ever, more companies coming in and doing more. We're oversold, if you listen to some of the teams, in some respects. ... That just shows you how much interest there is. We also like to keep some of the things in context in terms of the economy. ... Some parts of the U.S. are more affected than others; and despite that, we were up on our crowd count at a number of venues.

"So you have to keep it in context. You can't just look at the headlines and get confused."

France also denied that having driver Jimmie Johnson so far ahead in the Chase for the Nextel Cup entering Sunday's final event signals a need to alter the Chase format. Johnson held a seemingly insurmountable 86-point lead over Jeff Gordon, the only other competitor among the 12 Chasers with a mathematical chance of catching him -- but France argued that Johnson's series-high 10 victories should have put him in a enviable position.

"Our preferable outcome is that all 12 guys are 20 points within each other [heading into the final race]," France said. "I'm sure if you're [commissioner] Roger Goodell of the NFL, you want a 34-31, high-scoring deal where the two best teams make the Super Bowl and there is lots of drama in between. That's what everybody wants.

"But we're a sport. When somebody puts a dominating performance forward like Jimmie Johnson, well, you know what? He's having a run in the modern era that's maybe unmatched. That's the kind of thing where he deserves what's he's got. It's not the format. The format is great. You can put any format forward that you want -- but when Jimmie Johnson does what he's done ... he's just at a different level. And hat's off to him."

All in all, France pronounced his sport healthy, wealthy and at least attempting to stay wise.

"We had, by definition, a very good year," France said.