Franchising in NASCAR?

First post here gang, just curious, I was reading a link off of Jayskis to the Kansas City Star an article concerning NASCAR and franchising. Seems NASCAR is concerned about sponsors being upset when their teams don't make the show due to what may be a large qualifying field next season. One of the possible solutions NASCAR is looking into is franchising which I have to say i'm not sure how it would work. Helton puts it this way:

"Under franchising, there would be a set number of team franchises. New teams could come into the sport only if an existing team sold potential new owners their franchise. Under franchising, all cars make the field."

Am I to understand it that they would have only so many franchises..say 48-50 total so that that would be the entire pool of teams that could make a race? This way NASCAR can still claim its competitive as guys would still have to race their way in for the last few spots..(assuming that there would indeed be more franchises than actual starting spots..who can tell with NASCAR). If anyone has an idea of how this plan works could you shed a little light...I understand that sponsors are spending big bucks to have their companies name slapped on the hood of a car but wouldn't something like this just move the sport even farther away from what its original intention?

Helton himself states that the "Top-35" rule was put in place solely for the sponsors..at what point will NASCAR make a desicion that doesn't have a dollar value attached? (And yes I know that NASCAR is a business..but you still have to remember what your real product is..which last I knew was racing but I could be wrong on that).

Chris2