NASCAR disputes decline in appeal

Amid evidence that NASCAR peaked in popularity after a decade of tremendous growth, a recent incident at Las Vegas Motor Speedway suggests that the lull might be temporary. During a break from testing, Juan Pablo Montoya — a former Formula One driver who migrated to NASCAR's premier Nextel Cup Series this year — sat for a news conference.

One question came by telephone from a reporter in London for the British Broadcasting Corp., but he wanted the Colombian-born Montoya to answer in Spanish. NASCAR was born in the southeastern U.S. and bills its top event, the Daytona 500, as "the Great American Race." But Montoya, and his potential for attracting a legion of new Spanish-speaking fans around the world, is one of several developments in stock car racing that NASCAR believes could spark another growth spurt.

That would be welcome news for NASCAR after the sport appeared to level off in 2006.

• Television ratings rose for only three of the Cup series' 36 races.
• At least a dozen races failed to sell out, including the two run at 92,000-seat California Speedway in Fontana.
• Even NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., groused in November that many races might be too long, perhaps fueling the problem.

It was an abrupt reversal for NASCAR, which had been riding a wave of rising attendance, TV viewers and sponsorship spending for a decade in becoming one of the nation's most popular sports. More at Detroit News