Much like his mentor, Humpy Wheeler, who could often overshadow the stars of his own show when he ran Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Eddie Gossage has a knack for becoming the show at Texas Motor Speedway.
The TMS president and general manager had both barrels blazing leading up to Saturday night’s Bombardier Learjet 550k, and his targets were the IndyCar Series, the schedule that has Milwaukee in-between his race and the Indianapolis 500, Danica Patrick, road- and street-course races, and just about anything else that he believes doesn’t benefit his race.
Gossage did not hold back on his comments before and even during the race. By the midway point of Saturday night’s race, Gossage released a statement pointing out why the crowds at Texas aren’t as big as they used to be for the IndyCar Series battle under the lights.
“This crowd is great and still the biggest crowd to see an IndyCar race outside of the Indy 500 itself,” Gossage said in the release. “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 has an effect. 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.

There is a method to Gossage’s madness, however. His contract with the IndyCar Series runs through the 2009 race and Gossage wants the series to reduce the sanctioning fee it charges the track. According to Gossage, Texas pays the highest sanctioning fee of any track on the IndyCar schedule, and he believes he is being penalized for promoting the most successful IRL race outside of the Indianapolis 500.

“We love IndyCar racing and hope to get the IRL’s help in turning this trend around.”
From 1997 to 2005, the Texas IndyCar race was the next race after the Indy 500, with a one-week break between the two events. In 2006, IndyCar Series officials — on the advice of television partner ABC/ESPN — agreed to schedule a race the following weekend.
It was Watkins Glen in 2006 and Milwaukee the past two years, restoring a long-time tradition that dates back to the days when AAA and later USAC and CART sanctioned IndyCar racing.
Gossage has objected to that and contends that it has cut into his attendance, which has dropped from an estimated high of 129,000 fans in 1997 to 70,000 Saturday night.
However, what he fails to point out is beginning in 2005, Texas added a second NASCAR Sprint Cup date.
That probably has played as big a role in the shrinking attendance as anything.
There is a method to Gossage’s madness, however. His contract with the IndyCar Series runs through the 2009 race and Gossage wants the series to reduce the sanctioning fee it charges the track. According to Gossage, Texas pays the highest sanctioning fee of any track on the IndyCar schedule, and he believes he is being penalized for promoting the most successful IRL race outside of the Indianapolis 500.
He believes the IRL should reward him for the loyalty he showed the series in the early years when it was struggling, and with unification, IndyCar officials have been overcome with road- and street-course fever, moving further away from what the series was intended to be about when it was created.
Gossage believes the IndyCar schedule should be 80 percent ovals. Anything less, then it’s a “niche series.”
He made these comments at a time when IndyCar Series officials met with Speedway Motorsports, Inc. COO Marcus Smith, New Hampshire Motor Speedway President Jerry Gappens and Gossage to discuss adding New Hampshire to next year’s schedule and extending Texas’s contract with the series.
Gossage  pointed out a little bit of history.
“Way back when, there was a promoter who kept getting told by the sanctioning body to ‘butt out, butt out, butt out,’” Gossage said. “So, that promoter eventually went out and started up his own IndyCar series.”
He was referring to Tony George, who reached out to the CART board in the early 1990s only to be rebuked.
In Gossage’s mind, some things have come full circle.