HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Television ratings are down. At many venues, there seem to be far more empty seats than in recent years.

But on Sunday, prior to the running of the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the season finale in the long 36-race Nextel Cup season, Brian France insisted repeatedly that all is well with the sport that he presides over. Furthermore, France squelched rumors that his family might be willing to sell NASCAR anytime in the foreseeable future and denied that he has any plans to step aside.

Speculative reports suggesting both possibilities have circulated on the Internet and even in at least one magazine report in recent weeks.

"I'll be real clear about this: the beauty of the Internet is that you can get a lot of information from it. The other disappointing thing is that a lot of people have time on their hands to speculate, [write] blogs and all the rest. That came from, I guess, a blog report. I'm committed to my job for the foreseeable future -- and that's years, not months," said France, who is chairman and CEO of NASCAR.

"The family has absolutely no interest in selling NASCAR or International Speedway [Corp.]. That's exactly where it is. Our management team, not just from me, is the deepest, best team we could have from [president] Mike Helton right on down to the people that help him run this sport. We're committed and I'm committed to this sport for the long run."

When it was mentioned to France that one respected auto magazine had reported that European banking interests had inquired about the availability of purchasing NASCAR, France added: "All the time there are inquiries, and we do not take these from private equity firms or anyone else. We're just not for sale. We can't be any clearer than that. The family is committed -- my uncle [vice chairman James France], my sister [vice president and assistant treasurer Lesa Kennedy] and myself. ... You're just going to hear it from me as directly as I can: NASCAR is not for sale."

France also touched on other hot-button subjects concerning his sport, including a decline for the second year in a row in television ratings and an undercurrent of gripes from many longtime fans, some who appear to be turning their backs on the sport -- an assumption France vehemently denies.

"Well, they're not leaving the sport," France said. "But they are getting their NASCAR fix differently than they did before. There are lots of different ways to watch or read or pick up video clips than there ever has been before. That obviously has some impact on your [television] ratings.

"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.