NASCAR Chairman Brian France (pictured right) says the Nextel Cup series likely won’t race outside the U.S. soon, isn’t worried about sagging TV ratings and that California Speedway will keep its two race dates although it has struggled to sell all its tickets. France made those comments this week in a conference call with West Coast reporters only.

The Busch series will race next season at Mexico City and Montreal. The Cup series does not race outside the U.S., but might that happen? “I think it’s problematic for us to try to do that because the Cup schedule domestically is so full and there’s so much demand here in the U.S. it would be impractical to think we could take, you know, a championship points race outside of the U.S. at this time,” France said. “So, we’ll always look at it but right now there’s just too much domestic demand from across the country.”

TV ratings have been down this season from last year for nearly every race. France says the drop has been greater in the season’s second half. He blames NBC, which is in its final season of broadcasting Cup races. ESPN/ABC will replace NBC next year. “They’re not going to promote the NASCAR events to the level that they have in previous years and we understand that,” he said of NBC. “They have other priorities to focus on … and that’s at our expense.”

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