NASCAR chairman Brian France had some encouraging words about a possible track in Denver before Sunday's UAW- DaimlerChryslter 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

France believes the Nextel Cup will expand into additional markets in the near future and told NASCAR.com that Denver heads the list of expansion areas.

International Speedway Corp., which owns and operates 12 tracks throughout the country and is owned by the France family, has announced it is looking at sites in Adams County to possibly build a NASCAR venue.

"New York is in play, Seattle is in play and Denver is in play," France said. "They are all markets ISC has said they have an interest in.

"I don't expect all three to get a facility built, but I do expect something positive to happen when we gain more community support."

France said the Denver area appears to be the most promising possible location at the moment.

"Denver is looking like they have a little bit of momentum there," France said. "And I actually think New York will one day, in the near term, have a little bit more promise than it currently has now.

"Those are the things ISC is working on, and we're going to let them do that work to build community interest."

There has been recent criticism of NASCAR and ISC's pursuit of getting a track built in Washington state, just outside of Seattle, and there was opposition last week at a meeting in Commerce City.

France indicated opposition has appeared previously in other markets where tracks eventually were built and have become successful.

"You're going to have some objections when you go in to some of these places and try to build these major facilities," he said. "You have to work your way through those and build community support. I don't expect them to do that easily; I don't expect them to do that in every market that they think can host a NASCAR event.

"But do I think we will have success in one or more of those markets over the long term? Yes, it is my expectation that we will."

France pointed to a successful track in Kansas City, Kansas, that almost wasn't built.

"They had eminent domain issues at the time, trying to convince people that development in that part of Kansas was important," France said. "Not everybody agreed with that, and it got very close to not getting done.

"But it did get done and now it's a very successful development, a very successful venue."

bentonj@RockyMountainNews.com