Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage will be among the featured special guests on ESPN’s award-winning Outside the Lines television show Sunday that focuses on NASCAR. The show, which is scheduled to air at 8:30 a.m. CT, will examine the struggling national economy’s impact on NASCAR, ranging from fans to sponsors to transporting equipment and personnel across the country each week.
Short-track racers from the region will converge at Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway this weekend as the Summer Stampede kicks off Friday evening for the Lone Star Legends. The 10-race series is scheduled for five weekends during the summer and culminates with the crowning of champions in the seven
competing classes. The Summer Stampede will feature drivers from Texas and several surrounding
states competing in Bando Bandits, Bando Young Guns, Legend Young Lions, Legends Semi Pro, Legends Masters, Legends Pro and Thunder Roadsters. Points from the 10-race series will be accumulated to determine the series champion in the respective classes. The Summer Stampede gets underway with racing Friday and Saturday night (June 27-28) and continues on July 4-5, July 18-19, Aug. 1-2 and Aug. 15-16. Gates open at 5 p.m. with races starting at 7 p.m. each night. General admission is $5.
Saturday night's Bombardier Learjet 550 at Texas Motor Speedway ranks as the highest-rated and most-viewed IndyCar Series race broadcast on ESPN2. The broadcast produced a 1.0 cable rating and reached 939,160 households, up 44 percent over last year's event which drew a 0.7 (639,952 households). The race, which was won by Scott Dixon, surpassed ESPN2's previous high rating of .85 set this year in the season-opening race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The Bombardier Learjet 550 also was the second most-viewed IndyCar Series race in ESPN and ESPN2 history, trailing only the 2005 event at Kansas Speedway which drew a 1.05 (970,450 households) on ESPN.
“A full field of 28 cars as a result of the unification and the thrilling three-wide racing fans expect from Texas Motor Speedway translated into a very successful broadcast for our television partners at ESPN,” TMS President Eddie Gossage said in a statement. “We also put forth more effort on the national level in terms of promotion and we hope that had an effect on the amount of viewers as well.”
It also couldn't have hurt that the Bombardier Learjet 550 immediately followed a live NASCAR Nationwide Series race on the deuce.
On a similar note, Friday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series broadcast on SPEED saw a 40 percent increase from last year's event. The Sam's Town 400 posted a .94 (677,000 households), peaking at a 1.14 (826,000 households). It was the fifth consecutive NCTS race on SPEED that has received a ratings increase this season.
-- Michele Vincze
Photo: Star-Telegram/Gregg Ellman
9:30 p.m. ...
The race is not quite an hour old ...
And a statement from TMS president Eddie Gossage arrives. It's about attendance for the Bombardier Learjet 550, which, while very good, is not quite as good as it's been.
Here's the statement in full:
"This crowd is great and is still the biggest crowd to see an IndyCar race outside of the Indy 500 itself. We're very proud of it. But attendance has dropped almost 20 percent since 2005. It's clear that inserting a race between Indy and Texas had an affect. We spent more money on advertising and promotion this year than ever before. We've been selling tickets at a great pace since Robbie Knievel's jump was announced, but it wasn't enough to dig us out of the hole we were in prior to that. We love IndyCar racing and hope to get the IRL's help in turning this trend around."
For background, check out Jen's column from this morning.
-- Carlos Mendez
Kyle Busch couldn't make it to Fort Worth to qualify for Friday night's trucks race. So J.R. Norris did it. He handled all the practices and qualifying for Busch, who spent the week in Pocono getting ready for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race on Sunday.
Norris normally is in charge of Busch teammate Marc Mitchell's team in the truck series. So track time is always welcome.
"Kyle and I have a similar driving style," said Norris, who ran two trucks races last season. "We are both pretty aggressive and push the truck hard, so the team knows that if I'm happy with it, Kyle probably will be, too. I've got a pretty good idea of what he's looking for. If I had never worked with Kyle before this weekend, I'd be intimidated. But I know what he wants the truck to feel like, and I know we've got a good ruck ready for him."
Norris got the truck to 17th in qualifying. Busch appreciated it.
"He mentioned my name on ESPN the other night and thanked me," Norris said. "That made all this worthwhile."
It's OK to celebrate a good pit stop. It's not OK to sprain your ankle doing it.
One of Jack Sprague's pit crew members did both late in the Sam's Town 400, hopping up from a tire change to send the truck on its way. Trouble was, he came down on his right foot and hurt it. Nothing to do but wait for it to get better -- the cameras caught him with his foot resting on a stack of tires.
Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage has no desire to take over for the man he called the “Vince Lombardi” of motorsports. Lowe’s Motor Speedway president Humpy Wheeler announced Wednesday he was retiring as president of the Charlotte track after this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600.
And while Gossage will be in Charlotte on Thursday for an announcement from Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman Bruton Smith, it has nothing to do with a replacement for Wheeler.
“As long as I’m in racing, I’ll be here in Fort Worth,” Gossage said Wednesday.
Gossage said he’s confident the SMI board of directors will find the right person to replace Wheeler. He said he has a person in mind he would like to see take over at the track but didn’t want to say who it was.
“The board of directors will come up with a person who is in the best interest of the track,” Gossage said. “It won’t be me.”
Gossage worked for Wheeler in Charlotte from 1989 until leaving for TMS in 1995.
-- Anthony Andro
Low car-counts and the slumping economy have prompted management to cancel the Lone Star Nationals scheduled for Sept. 25-27 at the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track. The inaugural Lone Star Nationals last fall featuring IMCA Modified and Limited Modified classes was deemed a success, but the sagging economy has painted a bleak forecast for this year.
“Many of the competitors have been heavily affected by the economy and skyrocketing gas prices, and the result has been extremely low car-counts throughout the region,” Cameron Branch, TMS Dirt Track general manager, said in a statement. “We want to put on a great race weekend for our fans and we couldn’t promise that considering the recent car-counts at various tracks.”
However, the Pro Cuts World Dirt Track Championships held annually in March is scheduled to return in 2009.
Branch, who joined the TMS staff in mid-April, also manages the Lone Star Legends program, featuring races and events for Legends, Thunder Roadsters and Bandoleros. More than 35 events are booked for this summer. Branch also is assisting Legends programs at tracks in Wichita Falls and Kyle.
-- John Sturbin
The Champ Car World Series will run one last race this weekend, the Grand Prix of Long Beach. The series, which has merged with the Indy Racing League, was scheduled to run a race at Texas Motor Speedway almost seven years ago. Concerns about excessive speeds around the high-banked, 1.5-mile quadoval and driver blackouts forced the cancellation of the Firestone Firehawk 600, but memories still remain from that crazy weekend at TMS. Star-Telegram motorsports writer John Sturbin takes a look back at the ill-fated race and what became of the "trophy" (above held by TMS Director of Media Relations Mike Zizzo) for the winner that never was. Read Sturbin's column here.
-- Michele Vincze
Texas Motor Speedway announced Wednesday that Cameron Branch has been named general manager for Lone Star Legends and the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track. Branch brings an extensive background in shorttrack racing with him in his new role at TMS. Branch, a 41-year-old Haynesville, La. native, has made several trips to TMS with his company, J&J Motorsports. The Haynesville-based company has become the leading “one-stop shopping” supplier for all dirt track racing needs. With J&J Motorsports serving as the official tire distributor for the Southern United Professional Racing (SUPR) dirt late model series, Branch has become familiar with the TMS Dirt Track. The SUPR late model series has been competing annually at the TMS Dirt Track since 2004 and Branch has served on the officiating staff during several of those events.
Recent Comments