1) most americans hate nascar, too. But it's true, nascar has by far the biggest share of the us autosports market. Second is irl--but expect that chasm to widen with danica switching to nascar.
The contract with Bernie that Hellmund had has fallen through and now it's up to the Red McCombs group to try to negotiatie with Bernie directly. Bernie is not giving them terms that are as favorable as those he gave Tavo, since he has the NJ race in his pocket now.