Economy not dominant Johnson concerns NASCAR chief

MIAMI (Reuters) - Jimmie Johnson's domination is not harming NASCAR but the economic downturn is giving chief executive Brian France real cause for concern.

Johnson will almost certainly win his third consecutive title in the final race of the season at Homestead, Florida on Sunday, making him only the second driver to achieve the feat.

France said he was unconcerned that in matching Cale Yarborough's record from 1976-78, the commanding form of the modest and quietly-spoken Johnson was taking the thrill out of the sport.

"I'd love for all 11 drivers to be within 25 points of each other. But the reality of it is, that's sport," France told a teleconference.

"You're going to have World Series that are not as exciting as others and Superbowls, that's just the nature of a dominant performance."

Hendrick Motorsports driver Johnson's success this year has worked against NASCAR's plan for the end of season playoff races, introduced five years ago and known as 'The Chase', to produce a thrilling and tense finale but France denied that meant the system was weak.

"We're in our fifth year, as history will unfold, we'll have a period of years where someone will be as dominant as Jimmie and it will go down in the history books.

"Then there will be other years where that won't happen and we'll have a number of years of historically tight championship battles. That will be terrific, too," said France.

FINANCIAL CRISIS

Uppermost in France's mind though was the global financial crisis which is making it hard for teams to plow cash into the sport and to attract sponsors.

"There are pressures on certain revenue streams that are pretty obvious to us, sponsorship being one," he said. "In certain markets attendance has definitely suffered.

"I equate that somewhat to high fuel prices as well. It's not just a tough economy but it's a combination of those things."

France said it was too soon to judge how harshly the economic situation would impact on the sport.

"A lot of things we won't know until the future because of multiple year contracts and so on," he said.

"What's important is that our fans are under an enormous amount of pressure, forgetting NASCAR for a moment. But just a general running of their lives and making it all work.

"We're a small, hopefully wonderful part of someone's entertainment and fun-time on the weekend. What we're going to be working on is making sure we're sensitive to these tough times and doing everything we can for our teams as well.

"Holding the costs down, getting costs out so they can operate their businesses more efficiently, like most other businesses are trying to do in almost every industry," said France.

(Writing by Simon Evans; editing by Tony Jimenez)