TMS's Eddie Gossage share his views on health of sport

By Jerry Jordan

Motorsports Editor

One might think seeing Speedway Motorsports Inc.’s Eddie Gossage cruising through the Daytona media center could only occur in some sort of alternate reality, video-game world — especially since he works for the biggest rival of track owner International Speedway Corp.

But guess what? Gossage did stop by the media center for a few minutes on Thursday and he was on-tilt. Gossage said he was gunning for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“It’s a throw-down. But I think I can take him,” Gossage said. “He’s younger than me but I am bigger than him. He’s wiry.”

“When it was pointed out that Junior had a posse, Gossage shot back with a laugh, “He’s does but I’ve got a .38 in my pocket.”

Not to worry NASCAR fans, Gossage isn’t out to hurt the sport’s fare-haired boy — actually the two are good friends and if I had to bet the latest round of verbal sparring between the two is just a way for Gossage to sell tickets to the Samsung 500 in April.

For those that missed the verbal banter that has been going on behind the scenes over the past week, Gossage said that drivers could help fans face tough economic times by reducing the prices of their souvenirs and other swag.

Dale Jr. fired back that Gossage must have forgotten that Bruton Smith, Gossage’s boss, owned half of the company selling those souvenirs. And so began the most recent banter between the two.

It’s all in good fun,” Gossage confirmed. “I think we are a lot alike. He likes to poke at me and I poke back at him. There’s not a lot of people that will poke back at him and I think he likes that. We have a good relationship. I have known him since he was 12, so we go back a long ways.

“I expect Junior to say things and that is kind of what makes it fun, as long as, nobody’s feelings get truly hurt. But I agree with Bruton, we all need to do more. Promoters, drivers, the sanctioning body, sponsors. We all have to do more because we are all in this together.

“Seriously, he is the best thing we’ve got going. And he is the quickest fix for what ails our sports if he wins Sunday and runs well and is in contention for the championship.”

Gossage said no one can deny that NASCAR is feeling the affects of the nation’s economic downturn but he believes things will get better — and he said some of it has to do with how Earnhardt Jr. performs.

“Junior said something very interesting,” Gossage said. “The truth is, that the best thing that could happen in this sport to help in these tough times, right now, is for Junior to have a great year. I would love to see him win Sunday. He is the best thing that we have going.”

Just what is it that makes Junior so important to NASCAR? Well, a lot of things, according to Gossage.

“He’s got the magical last name and two he keeps it real. He’s still the same old Dale Jr. he always was,” he said. “He likes hanging out with his buddies and drinking beer and carrying on and they all identify with that. You know, I just think they see themselves in him and they saw themselves in his dad.”

And what about the other drivers in the sport? Aren’t they important? Don’t they make a difference? What can they do to bring NASCAR out of its slump?

“They need to beat him,” Gossage said. “And they have been for the past few years.”

Gossage also repeated something Dale Jr. said last year in the media center at Texas Motor Speedway — that NASCAR has been living in excess and now you see things in the garage like drivers working on their own racecars.

“It is probably a good thing and here is where I quote this noted economist Dale Earnhardt Jr., who said, ‘we have been living in a time of excess,’” Gossage replied. “And this particular market correction is probably a good thing. If fans see their favorite driver sitting by the motel pool or run into them at a truck stop on the way back home from a race, that is probably a good thing. I don’t believe we need 20 guys with graduate engineering degrees working on a racecar. We need mechanics working on the racecars. We need racecar drivers trying to figure out how to make them go faster.”

Is there hope? Can a sport that likely consumes more fossil fuel in a single weekend than any other sport does in its entire season survive? Can the track operators expect fans to fork out the cash to buy tickets when many are having trouble paying their mortgage? What about other sports? Aren’t they hurting? Since many NASCAR fans buy their tickets a year in advance, aren’t poor tickets sales in other sports an ominous sign that the worst is yet to come?

“It’s going to be tough,” Gossage said. “But I don’t think we are any more affected than any other sport. I was talking to the ticket manager for an NFL team on Wednesday and he just got back from a ticketing conference that had people there from the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, NHL, motorsports and the circus — you know the circus is a real good barometer. Everybody is feeling this and the general rule of thumb is that it can be, as much as, a 25 percent impact on most of these leagues and whatnot. I think we are a little more fortunate in that we don’t play 40 or 80 home games a year like some of the other professional sports do. But I also think that because our venues are so big that if you are down 10 percent, you are really going to see it and there is going to be a big hole in the stands. Whereas, if you are down 10 percent in a 20,000-seat arena, it is easy for 2,000 sets to be lost and you won’t see it as much. It’s a two edged sword and it’s going to be a tough year so we have to work hard.”

Gossage said that his track is doing alright, considering the circumstances. Ticket sales are down but TMS is offering specials at both ends of the price-point spectrum. For the well-heeled NASCAR fan, the new Burnout Alley overlooking the track along the TMS backstretch offers luxury motor coach accommodations at just $15,000 a year. They come with all the hook-ups for the motor coach, plus a host of other amenities.

Gossage said there were 47 spots available for the 2009 season and already 25 have been sold.

For the rest of the world, there is a $20 ticket available for the Sprint Cup Series race on April 5.

“We are offering a $20 reserved-seat,” he said. “My God, you can bring in your own cooler and you can park for free. So, for 20-bucks you can truly go to the race, have a reserved seat and see Dale Jr., Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and all of the rest. You can bring a cooler in so you can drink all day long and when you go home you have only spent 20-bucks. That’s a steal and nobody else in pro sports is doing that. And that is where our sport deserves credit because we are not the only one doing that — a lot of race. These are backstretch seats and we are better than 60-percent sold out since we announced that so that tells us there is a price-point issue out there with the public and it’s working.

“We are down like everybody else but we will still have one of the bigger crowds of the year, probably a Top 5 crowd and I am proud of that. But it is one of those things — it’s a fact — everybody is down. I don’t know a business that is not affected right now.”

So, is there something that NASCAR and the sport’s upper echelon can do to help? Is there something else that needs to be addressed?

“I think we have become too corporatized,” Gossage said.  “It’s no slam on anybody but I think the drivers are trying too hard to please their sponsors. And from working on the sponsorship side, we never told our drivers you can’t say this and you can’t say that. But I think they put limits on themselves and constrain themselves because they think that is the right thing to do. I will use Jimmie Johnson as an example. A guy that I like a lot and a guy that I personally know is a blast to be around — great personality, lots of fun — but you are never going to see that publicly. And that’s a governor that he kind of places on himself and I would encourage him not to do that. In fact, Bruton and I both said that he could help things really quickly if he would just get out of the racecar and slap somebody. And Bruton said he could slap him and then he said, he could slap Eddie. Then someone asked Jimmie about it and he said, “My dad taught me that we don’t throw the first punch we throw the last punch, so I guess Eddie needs to throw the first punch.” Then he said, “oh my God, he’s gonna hit.” So, I am looking of for him.

“I expect Jimmie Johnson has a great shot of being the first to win four championships in a row and that would be an amazing fete. I don’t think he gets near the credit for winning three-straight.”

Asked what the craziest thing that Gossage has ever seen Johnson do, he was mum.

“I am not going to tell you,” he said. “I am going to respect his privacy.”

As you might expect the following question was directed at Gossage’s craziest stunt ever, to which he fired back, “I am not going to tell you that either …”