DETROIT --- The future of America's stock car racing might be in the hands of foreign car companies.

Toyota already has left its tire prints in NASCAR and other foreign car companies are looking to do the same -- all at the possible expense of General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. Once an exclusive playground for America's car companies, NASCAR is looking beyond the border to make sure its wheels never stop turning.

NASCAR chairman Brian France held an impromptu press conference Sunday at Michigan International Speedway -- less than an hour from the Motor City headquarters of the Big Three automakers. He said other foreign manufacturers are looking at the sport to enhance sales in the states. For companies like General Motors and Chrysler, it wasn't the kind of support they wanted as they work through bankruptcy and reorganization.

"We've been talking to people off and on for a long time," France said. "We'll have our philosophical approach to that in terms of welcoming new companies in as we did with Toyota. It is under a very clear set of circumstances that the manufacturers come to NASCAR to compete. And that will not change.

"I'm not going to name names, but we have companies that are interested in particular in developing the North American market as robust as they can and you are well aware, as we are, the foreign manufacturers now producing cars in America. Those companies, as Toyota, did, that was part of the rationale that Toyota used, that helps them associate more with the market and we're the preeminent place to consider should a company want to do that."

Some believe NASCAR is hedging its bets should General Motors and Chrysler not recover from its troubles, or if Ford is forced to follow their American rivals into reorganization. If it takes Volkswagen, Honda and Nissan to save the sport, then it's a gamble the sanctioning body apparently is willing to take.

NASCAR was an all-American company for more than 50 years. NASCAR founder Bill France took great pride in racing the same cars found in grocery store parking lots. But as foreign car companies won bigger shares of the American market, NASCAR eventually rolled with the changes and opened the door for Toyota.

The invasion might not be finished.

For now, France is convinced Chevrolet eventually will come out of bankruptcy as a "leaner, meaner" company. Chrysler was purchased by Fiat in an effort to rebound. If all the reorganizations don't work, France is getting other manufacturers ready to fill the void.

France said the Big Three still are an integral part of the sport. He also saw nearly 20,000 empty seats at Michigan and an 11 percent drop in television ratings compared to last year. Business is slow in stock car racing, so no ideas are being discounted -- including the possibility of a sport without American cars.