DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR president Mike Helton attended the 10th anniversary celebration of the "Speediatrics" pediatric health care ward at Halifax Health Medical Center last week, as the NASCAR Foundation presented a $150,000 donation to the unit.

After the presentation ceremony, Helton took time to speak about several issues currently on NASCAR's radar screen, including the "have-at-it" mentality currently in play and the Cup Series' most thrilling championship Chase.

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They have confidence to be able to perform on the race track and at the same time they have the understanding of their responsibility of doing that correctly and I think we're seeing that on the race track.

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-- MIKE HELTON

Q: By the time drivers get to the Sprint Cup level, how do you think, for the most part, they've also achieved a great level of social consciousness?

Mike Helton: I think that it's embedded in them already, but I think the fertilizer that makes that feeling grow inside them is the environment that they're in. For generations we've seen figures in the sport that are very high-profile; we've seen figures in the sport that their hearts are very high-profile...

They're committed to making somebody else's life better, particularly if, in their opinion, there's been a great opportunity. I think crewmembers or drivers or even NASCAR officials -- whoever walks through that garage area -- see the examples from the past. Whether it's NASCAR or Betty Jane France or Dale Earnhardt, or Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson today -- they see those examples and they're reminded, 'Hey, that's a good thing, and I have an appetite to do that, too.' And it goes on from there.

Q: There were headline-grabbing events at Texas: Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton physically confronting one another and Kyle Busch making an obscene gesture to an official. How important is passion in the sport, and how fine a line does NASCAR have to tread to keep it appropriate?

Helton: Passion is certainly important, at the level of the competition that those drivers participate in every weekend and for others who compete with them, and it's important in everyday life. It's important to have passion for what you do because then you see the good results.

But passion is a huge part of competition and a huge part of sports -- it doesn't matter what sport you're participating in. And for NASCAR, the sanctioning body that's responsible for maintaining law and order -- it's tough. There is a lot of dialogue that goes on, today, as far as our proper role and reaction to things.

On the one hand, you've got a couple guys [Gordon and Burton]... And we've said to them, 'Hey, we've told you for 18 months we're going to give you more responsibility of controlling your reaction and what you do with each other on the race track, and we're putting more of that in your hands to resolve as long as it doesn't cross the line.' And we didn't think it did, in that case.

On the other hand, you've got a very important relationship between the competitors in any sport -- between any athlete in any league and the sanctioning body -- and there has to be respect for that law-and-order element.

And so, we typically see a whole lot of things happen during a season -- we saw a whole lot happen [at Texas].

Q: With one race remaining in the 2010 season, in your mind how has "have at it" gone over?

Helton: There are two pieces to that. One is that I'm proud of the competitors inside the garage areas that have taken that responsibility very seriously and have applied it very correctly.

And the second part of that; and what we get out of that, is the level of racing we're seeing on the race track now. They have confidence to be able to perform on the race track and at the same time they have the understanding of their responsibility of doing that correctly and I think we're seeing that on the race track.

Q: What's the state of the Chase, is there a need to tweak the format and what might that involve?

Helton: I'm not sure that you would posture this under a 'need' to do anything. I think it's a function of every year we look at the Chase -- and it's still very immature, it's only seven years old. And so the responsibility that we have is to look at it every year and decide whether or not there's an element or two that needs to be tweaked or are there things that could be interjected into to it to make it more relevant to 2010 instead of 1948?

And from that comes that decision-making process. But as it relates to this year, we have got a great Chase and it's what we would have liked to have seen every year. But this year is certainly a tremendous Chase.

That by itself doesn't enter into the decision-making process on what to do or not to do -- it's a conglomerate of the seven years experience that we'll have to look at, and to decide what to do. And that's why we've put any final decision on whether we do anything or not do anything until after the season's over with, so everyone can focus on the current Chase.

Q: With attendance and television ratings in a downward trend, is NASCAR waiting until the end of the season to consider that, or is it an ongoing process?

Helton: No, we don't wait; that's something you don't wait on. We're trying something every day and every week to look at things, whether it's the earlier starting times or the different moves that we've made. Does that have an impact on the results of the TV viewership, and if so, what does that mean and is that something that we need to react to, to turn in the right direction?

The whole industry is on an effort to figure out what each new business model is, so that when the economy changes, our industry will be just like other sports and other entertainment and retail businesses. We want to be in the right position to benefit from the curve when it comes back around.

In the meantime, though, in the last 18 months or two years we've made a lot of changes to our product. We've done a lot of things on the race track, from double-file restarts to the spoiler going back on [Sprint Cup cars] to giving more responsibility to the drivers.

So along the way, we've been doing things [trying to improve]. We don't wait on things, if it's appropriate. But some things take a lot of due diligence before you can react to them.