Dreaming of one asphalt oval, and five Olympic rings

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Eddie Gossage can swivel in his chair, look out his office window and into the infield of Texas Motor Speedway, and visualize it. A podium, and fluttering high above, a white flag featuring five interlocked, multi-colored rings. A national anthem being played over the public address system as drivers are awarded medals of gold, silver and bronze.

That was the dream, at least, and it was every bit as big as the 160,000-seat racetrack in Fort Worth. For a little while, it seemed realistic -- even possible -- that NASCAR drivers might one day crash the Olympics. In 1997, the new president of the region's new speedway was part of a 50-person committee tasked with putting together a bid to try and bring the 2012 Games to the Dallas area. And in the immediate aftermath of his facility's ultra-successful opening, Gossage thought: why not attempt to include auto racing, even as an unofficial, demonstration sport?

The potential was dizzying. At the time, Gossage could envision drivers like Jeff Gordon, Michael Schumacher, and the late Dale Earnhardt walking into an Olympic Stadium for opening ceremonies. He could see drivers competing for their respective national teams. He could hope for eventual graduation from demonstration to official sport, following the same path taken by baseball, judo, badminton and tennis.

"How special would that have been?" he said, his enthusiasm for the effort still palpable even 11 years later. Some would dismiss it as another one of Gossage's promotional vehicles -- like offering a reward for any driver who throws his helmet, like trying to coax Dale Earnhardt Jr. into an IndyCar, like alerting the media after a storm blew down one of the track's scoring towers. But getting auto racing into the Olympics was no joke.

"Just because you have a colorful imagination, which I do, doesn't mean you're not honest or serious about it," he said. "Would I have loved to have gotten Dale Earnhardt Jr. in an IndyCar back in June? You bet. Would I like to host the Texas-Oklahoma football game here at Texas Motor Speedway? Absolutely. Would I want us to be the venue to host the first ever Olympic motorsports event? No question about it. All those things are legitimate. Now, trying to make them happen is tough. But if you can pull one off every once in a while, then we're all better for it. And I truly thought we had a legitimate chance of actually awarding gold, silver and bronze in Olympic competition to somebody in auto racing." (Continued)