Eddie Gossage once set Bruton Smith’s hair on fire. Now he retires a respected NASCAR vet

Eddie Gossage’s 25-plus years at Texas Motor Speedway started in flames.

To promote the new lighting system that would allow for NASCAR’s first All-Star night race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1992, Gossage, then the vice president of public relations, rigged a mock switch box for his boss, Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman Bruton Smith, to pull in front of a swarm of clicking cameras ahead of the race.

When Smith pulled the lever, sparks jumped from the box, accidentally setting the billionaire track owner’s hair on fire. Gossage said he thought it was the end of his career. “You don’t embarrass The Man.”

Instead, it marked the start of a longtime mentorship and friendship, and put Gossage on Smith’s radar so that when SMI looked to develop its next track, Gossage was tapped to lead the project that became Texas Motor Speedway. He was eventually promoted to general manager and president of the track, a leadership position he’s held since 1995.

But with the All-Star Race finally moving to Texas this year and having passed his 25-year mark at the track (32 years with SMI), Gossage said he’s ready for the next chapter in life, one that includes spending more time with his wife, Melinda, and their kids and grandkids, as well as more revving motorcycle engines with Kyle Petty.

Gossage will step down as TMS president July 1, but not before one last party at the track in Fort Worth, Texas, after the June 13 race.

“As a promoter, you always want to have an exclamation point at the end,” Gossage said.

He spoke with The Observer about the flames, sparks and exclamation points that took him from Charlotte to Texas, and will carry him into the next phase after NASCAR. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Alex Andrejev: I know you like to say you’re stepping down instead of retiring? So why are you stepping down?

Eddie Gossage: It’s a good symmetry after 25 seasons to close this book, and it has been far and beyond my wildest dreams as a kid growing up (in Nashville). To think that I would have such a golden opportunity to build one of the biggest sports stadiums in the world is crazy for anybody to dream of, much less somebody from a blue-collar background like myself. It’s crazy. At one point, Bruton called me and he said, “You’re spending a little over a million dollars a day. How do you feel?” And I said, “I hadn’t thought about it that way, but I guess I feel OK because it’s your million dollars.” We laughed about it. But my reality has exceeded my dreams and it was a great opportunity and privilege that 25 years down the road, that’s enough of that and we’ll see what the future holds.

AA: You’ve had your hand in everything at Texas Motor Speedway, so I wonder how hard it will be to stay away. Do you think you’ll ever be back?

EG: No, I won’t be back at Texas Motor Speedway. That’s going to wind up being someone else’s project. Most presidents don’t comment on future presidents and the job they’re doing, so I don’t think that I would even make a comment on the speedway after I leave. That person deserves a fair shot to do their thing. Whether I approve or not isn’t relevant. Whether I’ll even go back to watch a race, 1, depends on whether I’m invited, and 2, will I want to? I know it sounds weird, but everything there, every blade of grass, every inch of asphalt and concrete has my fingerprints on it, and if somebody does something different than the way I did it, I’m not sure I’d be happy about it. So maybe the best thing is to stay away. I had my run and I did it my way and Bruton and Marcus (Smith) were great about that ... and the next person will do it differently than I did and that’s perfectly fine.

AA: I know you might feel like you’re too close to Texas, but is there any chance you’ll still be involved with Speedway Motorsports?

EG: I don’t think so. Marcus knows I’m always willing to answer any question and help in any way I can, but I don’t think I would ever be back on the payroll. They don’t need me. They have plenty of good folks, but I’m happy to help in any way. Roger Penske called me recently and we talked for a long time. We’ve known each other for 40 years now and when he bought Indianapolis (Motor Speedway), there was a period of time where we talked almost nightly, texted at least, and he would ask a lot of questions: “What do people get when they buy that package? How big is the place you park the motorhome there? And do they get utility services?” He’s been after me to come to Indianapolis and ride around with him. I think he wants to show me what he’s done because he’s proud of it, which is a common denominator between him and Bruton. And Roger said he wants to know how I would “Eddie Gossage up the place,” which is a tremendous compliment ... I have a ton of respect for those guys. That’s a great place, so it’s just a tremendous honor that a guy like Roger wants my advice.

AA: How often have you been to Indianapolis?

EG: For years and years and years I was (former IndyCar driver) Danny Sullivan’s PR guy back in the 1980s and I was at Indy for the 500 we won (1985). I sat in the grandstands and watched the race and just loved it. That’s just such a special place. The hair on the back of my neck stands up every time I go through that tunnel. It’s different from every other place. I grew up watching the Indy 500 on TV every Memorial Day weekend and then one day I found myself there in the midst of it all and it just was something else, the most fun. I’ve been there forever and ever.

AA: How long had you been planning your retirement announcement and why did the All-Star race feel like the right time to tie it to?

EG: As a promoter, you always want to have an exclamation point at the end. The NASCAR All-Star race is the biggest race we’ve ever hosted. It’s bigger than a regular point-paying race. When Marcus and I started talking about it being time, that was late-summer last year. He suggested that I stick around and do the All-Star Race. He said, “That’s right up your alley.” And he’s right. So I’m glad I’m doing that and it’s been a lot of fun working on this race and it is special. I’m having fun with it, but I’m also looking at July 1, which is my official end date at the track, and it’s kind of like looking ahead toward graduation and it’s close. You’re excited about it, yet you get nostalgic at times because you realize you’re not going to get to see all your friends as much. You look after that date and you’re excited about that, but there’s anxiety. How’s it gonna be? How’s it gonna feel? What am I going to do? There’s a lot of feelings about it, because Speedway Motorsports has been my life for 27-and-a-half years. I’ve been 100% in. I’ve lived it morning, noon and night. This has been it for me.

AA: There are all these stories you’ve created over the years. There was the TexasMotorSpeedway.com April Fool’s joke, the New Kids on the Track banner, setting Bruton’s hair on fire. Are there any specific memories you look back on now and think, “I can’t believe I pulled that off?”

EG: Well, setting Bruton’s hair on fire will always be No. 1, because you don’t set many billionaire’s heads on fire. I did. It was my fault. I would have fired me. It was in front of tens of thousands of people. There were TV cameras all around ... I really didn’t know him well. I was the VP of public relations at Charlotte and obviously I knew who he was, but it was nothing more than, “Good to see you, Sir.” And you go about your business, because I worked for (then-Charlotte Motor Speedway president) Humpy Wheeler. When it happened, I went to Humpy the next day and I said, “What do I do now?” He said, “Make a joke about it. He’s got a great sense of humor.” So I sent a fire extinguisher to his office with a note written on it and I thought, “Well, I’m doubling down here, so it’s either going to go great or he’ll come over here and punch me in the mouth as he tells me I’m fired.” Later that day, he called me for the first time in my life. I figured, this is it. And he said, “Let me ask you a question. Some friends of mine in Hawaii called me last night and they were concerned (about the fire). How did they see it in Hawaii?” I had hired a crew to shoot all of the activities going on and they put it up through a satellite to every TV station in the country. I’m thinking that he’s thinking that I spent his money to make him look bad. You don’t embarrass The Man. Instead, he asked me, “How much did you have to pay to do that?” For some reason the number $600 sticks out. It wasn’t a lot of money. And this is a guy who to this day still believes that if it’s a red light, you jump out of your car and tack a poster to the telephone pole right there. Well, based on his reaction he clearly thought I had just walked on the moon. He thought it was the most genius move ever, using satellites orbiting the Earth to promote a race.

AA: How did you get that deal put together?

EG: It’s a standard deal. I had been doing it for years before I ever got to Charlotte Motor Speedway. For instance, with Danny Sullivan at the Indy 500, we would sit him down in front of a camera and give stations in local markets around the country five minutes to talk to him live from Gasoline Alley before the race. It’s very, very easy to do. (Bruton) thought I was a genius. From there, that spawned Texas Motor Speedway. He said, “Go find a place to build a speedway.” I said, “OK, I need some direction.” And he said, “West of the Mississippi. That’s all I got for you.”

AA: So it was during that call he told you to find a place for a new track?

EG: No, I’m compressing some. But it was within six months. We began talking daily in that period of time. But he was getting to know me. He was testing me. He sent me to the 1994 FIFA World Cup to write a white paper, which was not like him at all. Usually he would just call me for information. Marcus was in college then and we went to Chicago and wrote a white paper about everything we could see, from signs at the airport to the price of food at the concession stand. And then he sent me to look at a piece of property in Las Vegas ... We went to St. Louis, Dallas-Fort Worth, and when we landed there, there’s Ross Perot Jr. He took us for a ride in his helicopter to look at this piece of property there and it had everything we were looking for: Interstate on one side, highway on two sides, we were 20 minutes or less from DFW airport, Alliance Airport for the private plane. We’re flying over and I hit Bruton on the leg and I mouth, “This is it.”

AA: I know you haven’t been a fan of NASCAR racing at COTA in the past. Was there any frustration with it being on the schedule this year?

EG: What changed is it’s us (Speedway Motorsports leased the track). That changes everything. Marcus called me and said I had my choice. They were going to do this thing at COTA and I could have the two point races like we always have and they’d run the date at COTA, or I could have the All-Star Race and the regular fall race. Well, I’m going to take the All-Star Race 200 times out of a hundred. There’s no question. I have no problem at all. It’s us. But if another promoter is doing the race, I might have a problem. But it’s us, so it works out fine.

AA: You found out they’re throwing a surprise retirement party at the track after the All-Star Race. Anything else to tease for that?

EG: There will be a post-race celebration that has never been seen in NASCAR before. And that’s me walking out the door. I bet you’ve never seen it and you’ll be delighted. It’s part of the festivities after the checkered flag. Everybody in the place will see it.