Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage earlier this week announced plans to build the largest video board in the U.S., and he "gave credit" to Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones for the video board at AT&T Stadium, according to Carlos Mendez of the FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM. Gossage said, "They made this a big-screen market. You look around this area, and even high schools have big screens that are bigger than the screens that we’ve been using.” Mendez reports Gossage is "not in competition with the Cowboys," but his screen "had to be bigger because TMS is a bigger venue than AT&T Stadium." Gossage: "It will be a novelty, if you will, for some people to come out and see it. And if they come out and see it, they’re going to love the racing. If they’ve never been to a race before, it’s going to expose them to racing, and then we’ll reel them in and make them a regular" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 9/26). Gossage said, "Our fans are so jacked-up that we're going to have that screen." Meanwhile, he reiterated the April '14 Sprint Cup race at TMS is moving from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon because the NCAA Men's Final Four will take place at AT&T Stadium. Gossage: "I'm sure some basketball fans are going to want to come to the race, some race fans are going to want to the Final Four. ... This way everybody's accommodated. We've also heard from some corporate clients that want to do both as well" ("NASCAR Now," ESPN2, 9/26).
DRILL, BABY, DRILL: In Ft. Worth, Jim Fuquay reported the first natural gas well on the north side of TMS "was being drilled Tuesday." Ft. Worth-based Quicksilver Resources "plans five wells at the current drill site on the edge of the racetrack’s sprawling parking lot, plus two additional drill sites on the west side with similar numbers of wells planned." Quicksilver Senior Dir of Community & Government Affairs Steve Lindsey said that the company also will "drill under the speedway from the east side of Interstate 35, something it did when it drilled at Alliance Airport." But race fans "won’t see any rigs at the speedway" Nov. 2 and 3 during NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races. Lindsey said that drilling "will cease and the rig will be moved for the race weekend." Under an agreement reached in '08, the Ft. Worth Sports Authority and TMS "will share royalties from production on the property, with much of the money going toward improvements at the facility" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 9/25).
