Racin ‘Today »Gossage Retirement A Hot Topic

Longtime Texas Motor Speedway boss Eddie Gossage is moving on. (Photo courtesy of Texas Motor Speedway)
FORT WORTH, Texas – The reaction to Eddie Gossage’s decision to end his tenure as president and CEO of Texas Motor Speedway after Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star race ran the gamut from “well done” to “What is the real reason? “
“The cards, letters, phone calls and emails that I have received,” Gossage said earlier this week. “People like Roger Penske reach out and say, ‘Good job. And then, crazy, these rumors.
“I asked a man to pull over in a parking lot the other day, and it happens quite regularly, to be honest. And he said, ‘I don’t understand why you’re quitting.’ I said, ‘Well, you know it’s about time.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, there’s got to be more than that. I don’t buy this. It’s more than that because it’s the best job in the world.
“I said, ‘You are confusing this job with giving a trophy to Victory Lane. This is all you see. It’s like any other management job where you deal with budgets, you deal with people, and people come up with problems… and I want to push higher, I want to be the biggest racetrack in the world and you are competing for these roles with other racetracks, some of which have been around for over 100 years. You don’t meet your aspirations sometimes, and it’s frustrating.
One rumor suggested that Gossage had never fully embraced the decision by NASCAR in conjunction with Speedway Motorsports Inc., parent company of TMS, to move the date of the TMS Cup spring race to the Circuit of The road circuit. Americas in Austin. SMI staff took care of the promotion for the recent weekend in May, as the sanctioning body continues to explore different markets with the aim of attracting new sponsors and fans for its three series of national tours. .
SMI President and CEO Marcus Smith is rumored to have given Gossage an ultimatum to resign or be fired because of the COTA issue.
“There is no truth to this, absolutely not,” said Gossage, 62, who spent 32 years at the company founded by O. Bruton Smith. “I would have a problem (with COTA) if it weren’t for the fact that it’s us _ this is Speedway Motorsports _ you know what I mean?” This stuff changes everything completely. In the process, it gave us the All-Star Race and we ended up with the best program we’ve ever had by far. “
Two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch joined the chorus of pilots congratulating Gossage and the facility he has overseen since its inauguration on April 11, 1995.
“Eddie has done a phenomenal job here over the years,” Busch said after scoring his 10e Victory of the Xfinity series in the Saturday 25e Alsco Uniforms 250 Annual. “You look at this place… we were driving here the other day and (wife) Samantha said, ‘This place is so huge. I said, “Think about this place being built in 1997, compared to what it looked like in 1997. I don’t know what year the Stratosphere was. (The STRAT Hotel, Casino & SkyPod) was built, but that for me it was pretty cool growing up in Vegas. And then seeing Texas Motor Speedway when you get there is like, wow. With Eddie at the helm of the ship the entire time, he’s put together a lot of great promotions. I feel like there has been a lot of excitement around this track. I think we’re in our own town now here _ “No Limits, Texas” _ so he’s a thinker. This brain must never shut down. Granted, it’s been really cool, so I wish him all the best in what he’ll do next.
Let’s come back to this meeting in the parking lot. “The guy said, ‘I’m trying to read between the lines here’ ^,” Gossage recalls. “I said, ‘There’s nothing to read between the lines. It’s perfect.’ So I don’t know how long I have to work before I can quit. Apparently 25 years is not enough for some people. Personally, I’m sick of myself.
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