1on1: Eddie Gossage (cont'd)

Q: For those of us not in Texas, describe exactly what that billboard campaign consisted of?

Gossage: Well, you won't see it now -- because at the request of Kelley and Dale Jr., we changed it. But our advertising campaign this year is what we call our 'Reasons Campaign' -- reasons why you would attend the Samsung 500 or the Dickie's 500 in the fall. And so we had one billboard that had a photograph of Dale Jr. and it said, 'Reason No. 88: Stepmom.' It created quite a buzz. Kelley and Dale Jr. said, 'Look, our issue is that we're trying to move forward. This is one of those things that is causing us to look back.' ... And I said, 'Look, if it makes you uncomfortable, we'll change 'em.' Now it says: 'Reason No. 88: New car smell.'

Q: Any other billboards we should know about?

Gossage: Oh yeah, there are other 'Reasons' billboards and newspaper ads, too. Reason No. 24: Eighty-one career wins, zilch at Texas. Reason No. 48: Twice as good as 24? Reason No. 20: Road rage, with a great wild-eyed photo of Tony (Stewart). Those kinds of things, you've got to have the guts to pull them off.

And in these cases, all these guys are friends of mine. Jeff and I have talked about how it's really buggin' him that he's never won here in Texas. With Jimmie, we're just trying to cause water-cooler debate. First of all, you can't be twice as good as Jeff Gordon. That's not possible. But where does Jimmie stack up to Jeff? Jimmie has won two straight Cup championships. ... Those are some of the silly things we've done along the way.

Q: Of course you also recently made the $15,000 offer to any driver who would throw his helmet in a fit of anger during a competition. What was that all about?

Gossage: About a month ago, we had a media day. And a reporter asked a question about NASCAR's statement that they planned to let drivers show more emotion. It seemed like they got fined money or points or both for any little thing they were doing the last few years, and NASCAR said that they were going to kind of let them show their real colors or whatever.

So I said, 'I'll tell you what. I'm inspired by Brian France and Mike Helton saying this. And here's what I'm going to do: I've got a big helmet collection, and between now and the Samsung 500 -- that meant (through last Sunday) and the race at Martinsville -- I'll pay $15,000 for the helmet that any driver throws during the course of a race. I just thought I could add something to my collection, and get a little excitement going, a little buzz going. In truth, it was a joke. But I would have done it if a driver had thrown something.

Q: He wouldn't have had to throw it at another competitor, though, right?

Gossage: Well, Kevin Harvick was nearby. And he stopped by to say, 'Let me make sure I've got this straight. If I throw a helmet, you're gonna give me $15,000?' I said, 'OK, since you're going to parse words, the caveat has to be that during the competition it has to be in a fit of anger or rage.' You can't just stand there in the garage and say, 'Oh, here's an old helmet and toss it in the corner and say, 'OK, Eddie, where's my 15 thousand bucks?'

Harvick came back and said, 'Well, they fine us $25,000 for that.' And I said, 'Yeah, well, and you fools still throw 'em, don't you? So at least this way you've got $15,000 Eddie Bucks in your pocket before you start, so it's only going to cost you $10,000 instead of $25,000.'

Q: What did you learn during your first job out of college working at 14,000-seat Nashville Speedway, and what's the craziest thing you ever saw happen there?

Gossage: The craziest thing I ever saw was an almost-knife fight between two competitors during the race on the racetrack. One guy crashed. The other guy jumped out. They're going at it, cars are still flying by during the caution, and by the time the cops got there one of the guys was trying to get his knife out of his pocket.

I had made it to the big time. But, you know, at Nashville, as it is the case at any Saturday night short track, you don't have any staff. You've got to do everything. So I've flipped burgers and I've driven the pace car and I've done the P.A. and I've flagged the races and I've sold tickets and I've handed out the trophy and suspended drivers and on and on and on. That's the beauty of learning at that level -- because there is nothing here at Texas Motor Speedway that I haven't already done. I can do it, and the staff can't pull the wool over my eyes and say something can't be done, because I've already done it. So it was a great learning experience, but I wouldn't do it again for a million dollars. You could kill yourself. It was six days a week and on Sunday you slept, because you were just exhausted. But it was a fun experience, a great time in my life -- and that's why the young are given youth.

Q: Talk a little about leading the SMI side of the negotiations with former U.S. presidential candidate Ross Perot's people to purchase the land where Texas Motor Speedway now sits?

Gossage: It was exciting. Bruton told me to go buy the land and gave me the parameters of what to work with, in terms of here's your ceiling but negotiate. Ross Jr. went to Vanderbilt, which is located in Nashville, where I'm from. And I'm not sure what his degree was in, but probably it's some sort of business degree. And here's me -- a journalism major from Middle Tennessee State University. My dad loaded box cars for a living. He worked hard, sweated a lot -- good, honest hard work, that kind of thing. And here I find myself sitting across the table from Ross Perot Jr., trying to negotiate this deal to buy the land to build this speedway. I'm proud to say that we ended up getting the better end of the deal.

It really was one of those experiences where you say to yourself, 'How did I end up here? How do the stars align in such a fashion that little ol' me winds up doing this?' (Continued)