Fox and NBC-TBS won the bidding war for the TV rights to NASCAR, the only sport whose ratings have increased each year this decade.

The deal announced Thursday takes effect in 2001 and is expected to be worth about $400 million a year for consolidated rights to televise stock car races. That would be about four times what NASCAR is making under the current arrangement, which covers many separate deals for races.

In 1985, NASCAR received only $3 million for the TV rights to 28 races.

Fox, along with cable partners Fox Sports Net and FX, will get the first 18 weeks of the NASCAR season, while NBC and TBS will split the second half.

The NBC-TBS portion of the deal is for six years, while Fox's agreement is for eight years.

The sport's premier event, the season-opening Daytona 500, will alternate each year between the networks.

NASCAR said in February that it no longer will allow race tracks to negotiate separate deals, returning to the setup it had until 1978, when it was in charge of the sport's television rights.

Disney's ABC-ESPN and CBS were left out of the NASCAR package. CBS has televised the Daytona 500 since 1979 and ESPN features many NASCAR races and shows, including "RPM 2night."

Part of the negotiations involved NASCAR's desire to have all Winston Cup races on network television. With golf and NCAA tournament commitments, CBS had only nine available programming windows for races.

"We made an aggressive bid given the package," ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys said. "While we're disappointed and would have liked to continue our NASCAR relationship, we have an incredibly strong programming lineup and we'll continue to be the NASCAR's fans daily lifeline to their favorite sport."