While Texas Motor Speedway President EDDIE GOSSAGE “claims to be a quiet and boring guy most of the time, his better-known, fun-loving alter ego has turned the 1,500-acre, $250 million TMS into one of Dallas-Fort Worth’s most underrated sports success stories,” according to Art Stricklin of D MAGAZINE. Gossage has been the “over-sized local face of NASCAR” since the North Texas track opened in '97. He has “constantly battled local media for attention and waged his own successful battle with blood cancer two years ago, all while balancing the loyalties of hard-core, blue-collar fans on the one hand and big-spending, high-end sponsors and spectators on the other.” Gossage: “The last of the old-school promoters? I guess that’s me. If I knew another way to do it, I probably would. But the only way to do it is DON KING-style.” That means “no promotional stunt, gimmick, or headline before, during, or after the race is too outrageous for Gossage’s taste or imagination.” Of the 14 stock-car tracks that staged two races at their facilities last season, TMS had “the highest total attendance -- at 314,000 -- for events in April and November.” TMS in the 15 years that it has been open under Gossage “has never drawn fewer than 150,000 fans for a non-weather-delayed NASCAR cup race,” and that is “something few other tracks can say.” NASCAR driver and team owner TONY STEWART said, “I think all drivers kind of rolled their eyes about his promotional stunts over the years. But once I got my own small tracks and saw what he was trying to do, I became a big admirer.” Diver MATT KENSETH said, “There is no doubt that selling a ticket to a NASCAR event is a lot tougher than it was six or seven years ago. But Eddie is the best at it” (D MAGAZINE, 3/’12 issue).
