Texas Motor Speedway Tickets

• Yates, Busch, Gordon, Ambrose To Be Honored With Special Awards
• Fans Get Involved In Event With Selection of TMS’ Top Moment From 2009
• Gala To Benefit Speedway Children’s Charities – Texas Chapter

FORT WORTH, Texas (March 16, 2010) –  Joe Gibbs, once considered a rival to many in the state of Texas as the Super Bowl-winning head coach of the Washington Redskins, will now be hailed by the Lone Star State as he will be the latest motorsports icon inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame.

Gibbs, who owns three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships (2000, ’02, ’05) as owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, will be honored Friday, April 16, during the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame Gala held in the Speedway Club’s Grand Ballroom at Texas Motor Speedway during the Samsung Mobile 500 race weekend. 

Along with Gibbs’ induction, Texas Motor Speedway and Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter will help recognize other outstanding individuals in motorsports – renown Sprint Cup Series team owner and engine builder Robert Yates, Sprint Cup Series star Kyle Busch, four-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, JTG-Daugherty Racing’s Marcos Ambrose, veteran motorsports reporter John Sturbin – as well as recognize the top moment from the 2009 season at “The Great American Speedway!”

“It’s a great honor to have been selected into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame and I want to thank everyone with the Speedway and all those that voted for me to receive this recognition,” Gibbs said. “I’m not so sure everyone in Texas would agree with them judging by some of the reactions I used to get on the sidelines with the Redskins. But in all seriousness, I have always felt that Texas has some of the best and most passionate fans in the country and certainly their support of the NASCAR community has been outstanding. Any success we have had at TMS should really be attributed to our drivers, crew chiefs and all the people here at Joe Gibbs Racing.”

Gibbs will become the 12th member of the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame, joining previous inductees A.J. Foyt (2003), Johnny Rutherford (2003), Terry Labonte (2004), Lee Shepherd (2004), Kenny Bernstein (2005), Jim Hall (2005), Eddie Hill (2006), Mark Martin (2007), Jim McElreath (2007), Bobby Labonte (2008) and Bruton Smith (2008).

With his induction, Gibbs becomes the first Sprint Cup Series team owner to earn a spot in the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame. Gibbs has established one of the premier organizations in motorsports since opening the doors to Joe Gibbs Racing in 1992. He has won four championships in NASCAR competition (three Sprint Cup Series, one Nationwide Series), with his most recent coming last year as Busch was crowned Nationwide Series champion. Texas native and fellow Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee Bobby Labonte guided the organization to its first Sprint Cup Series championship in 2000.

When it comes to Texas Motor Speedway, no owner has proven to be more dominate than Gibbs. As an owner in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series, he has combined to amass five wins, 18 top-five finishes, 35 top-10 finishes and five poles at “The Great American Speedway!” In 2009, Gibbs joined Michael Gaughan as the only two car owners to earn four consecutive victories at Texas Motor Speedway, with Busch sweeping the Nationwide Series races at Texas Motor Speedway in 2008 and ’09.

Busch, Gibbs’ most dominate driver at Texas Motor Speedway, will be honored as this year’s Texas Motor Speedway Racer of the Year. Busch mastered the 1.5-mile speedway in 2009 as he earned his third and fourth consecutive victories in the Nationwide Series to join Brendan Gaughan as the only drivers to win four consecutive races in any major series at TMS.

Last November, Busch nearly became the first driver in NASCAR history to win three national series events on the same weekend. He captured his first career truck series victory at Texas Motor Speedway in the WinStar World Casino 350k and followed with a victory in the O’Reilly Challenge Nationwide Series race the following day. Busch came up two laps short in his bid for history as he ran out of fuel on Lap 332 of the 334-lap Dickies 500 Sprint Cup Series race, relinquishing his lead to older brother Kurt, who went on to victory.

Yates, veteran team owner of Robert Yates Racing and accomplished NASCAR engine builder, will be recognized as this year’s Bruton Smith Legend Award recipient. Yates established a dominant organization from 1989 to 2009. During that span, Yates earned 57 career Sprint Cup Series victories, including a pair at Texas Motor Speedway (2001, ’04). In 1999, Dale Jarrett led Yates to his lone NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. Along with Jarrett, Yates’ stable of drivers included the likes of Davey Allison, Ernie Irvan, Ricky Rudd and Elliott Sadler.

Ambrose and Gordon will both receive the Texas Motor Speedway Sportsmanship Award. Ambrose, in his second full season with JTG-Daugherty Racing, has continued to excel on the track. He finished 18th in the Sprint Cup Series points last year and earned a career-best second finish at Watkins Glen. Since making the jump from V8 Supercars in Australia to stock cars in 2006, Ambrose has climbed the NASCAR ranks starting in the Camping World Truck Series and moving up to the Nationwide Series before his rookie season in the Sprint Cup Series in 2008. During that time, he tallied two victories in the Nationwide Series. 

Gordon has established himself as one of the all-time greats in NASCAR, winning four Sprint Cup Series championships (1995, ’97, ’98, 2001) to go along with 82 career victories that rank him sixth on the all-time wins list. During the Samsung 500 in 2009, he earned that elusive first victory at Texas Motor Speedway in his 17th career appearance. His on-track success is only matched by what he has accomplished off it. Gordon has exemplified the ideals of sportsmanship through the development of the Jeff Gordon Foundation. He continues to make a difference in the lives of children facing critical illness, including the Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital in Concord, N.C., and through his foundation in which he has raised nearly million.

The newest award, the Excellence in Motorsports Journalism Award, will be awarded to Sturbin. He has covered motorsports for more than 35 years, most notably with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and currently for RacinToday.com. His work has been recognized by those in the industry as he received the prestigious Bloys Britt Award, as judged by The Associated Press, for a feature on Indy-car icon A.J. Foyt and his rehabilitation from devastating foot and leg injuries.

A new twist this year will allow fans to take part in the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame ceremony as they will vote on Texas Motor Speedway’s top moment from the 2009 season in the Fan Choice Award presented by 1310 The Ticket. Gordon’s first victory at Texas Motor Speedway; Helio Castroneves’ record-tying third career IndyCar Series win in June’s Bombardier Learjet 550k; and Jimmie Johnson’s early-lap wreck in the Dickies 500 that changed the complexion of the championship race at the time are the three moments being featured. Fans can vote at www.texasmotorspeedway.com to decide the winner and one lucky fan will have the opportunity to announce the winner and present the award during the festivities.

The Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame, located in the outdoor atrium adjacent to The Speedway Club, is open year round and free to the public. The Hall of Fame atrium features pedestals of the inductees, including their career highlights.

The Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame Gala benefits Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter. The organization’s mission is to care for children in educational, financial, social and medical need in order to help them lead productive lives. Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter has distributed more than .7 million in grants to local children’s organizations in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties.

A VIP reception hosted by previous Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame inductees will take place prior to the awards ceremony beginning at 6:30 p.m. CT on the ninth floor in the Grand Ballroom. The Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame induction ceremony will begin following the conclusion of the ARCA Racing Series Rattlesnake 150. Table sponsorships and individual tickets are available for the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame event by calling (817) 215-8421 or by visiting www.scctexas.org. 

FORT WORTH, Texas (March 12, 2010) – Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage always has been one to capitalize on the opportunity to promote the speedway’s upcoming race event when an incident or event in the sport captures the attention of the media and the fans.

Some of those promotional opportunities that have come about in recent years he would consider “no brainers” (i.e. Dan vs. Danica circa 2007), but others force a promoter to walk a fine line. That instance occurred this week as Gossage was considering utilizing the dramatic wreck of Brad Keselowski caused by Carl Edwards at Atlanta last Sunday to help promote the Samsung Mobile 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday, April 18, at Texas Motor Speedway.

Below is Gossage’s blog that he posted this morning on ESPNDallas.com that delves into making such a decision and if he opted to walk that fine line. Ultimately, he decided to do just that by using the wreck (see attached) as part of Texas Motor Speedway’s “Approved!” ad campaign, appearing today.

Did Gossage step over the line or was it another smart move by the sport’s premier promoter? Feel free to go to http://espn.go.com/dallas/columns/eddiegossage/blog and voice your opinion either way in the comments section below the blog as Gossage is interested in everyone’s take on the decision.

GOSSAGE BLOG POST FRIDAY, MARCH 12 ON ESPNDALLAS.COM

“Have at it, boys.”

NASCAR said those words in a January press conference. While we knew it would change racing no one thought it would occur in such a spectacular manner in only the season’s fourth race.

Let me qualify right up front that I really like both Carl and Brad. Edwards is an incredible talent and one of the truly nice guys I’ve dealt with in my career in this sport. He will win NASCAR Sprint Cup titles and I’ll pay him my ultimate compliment – he’s old school. 

And Keselowski is a sharp young guy who is a bit on the wild side, much as I remember a young Dale Earnhardt Sr. or a young Ernie Irvan. Those comparisons are high compliments.  Brad and I text back and forth and I always offer him encouragement. He’s going to be huge and I’ll offer him the same compliment – he’s got some old school in him, too.

Remember…the old school way in NASCAR is to defend yourself. Sometimes it’s immediate; sometimes it’s on the track and sometimes off the track. It has been going on for decades. Both of these guys know and embrace “old school.”

After finding out that, fortunately, nobody was injured, thoughts immediately turned to – what else? – promotion. We’ve riled some people up over the years with some of our advertising. That’s typically a good thing, a very good thing in advertising and marketing.

But understanding the sensitivity of this terrifying accident and recognizing the potential injuries – or worse – that could have occurred, how do you use this incident in promotion without going over the line? 

So I discussed and debated the issue with myself. I discussed and debated it with key people on the staff here at Texas Motor Speedway. (Yes, the staff debates me and they are very smart and in touch with the art of promotion.  I hate “yes men.”) But I just wasn’t sure. In fact, I didn’t sleep good Monday night because I was still debating internally.

And then NASCAR made its ruling on further punishment for Edwards: three races on probation. No suspension. No points penalized. No fine.

They made the right call. But the call also reiterated, “Have at it boys.”

So my answer was easier. “You have to do it.” It’s one of the reasons the crowds at the NASCAR Sprint Cup races are among the top five all year long.

Our ad campaign is entitled, “Approved.”  You have perhaps seen the ads and the billboards. A shot of Jimmie Johnson’s crumpled car with the headline, “Door Dings. Approved.” Or a shot of a wild-eyed Juan Pablo Montoya, headlined, “Road Rage. Approved.”  Or a shot of Joey Logano’s car flipping over and over reading, “Tailgating.  Approved.”

Who approved it? I don’t know. You? Me. Some other fan? Some other driver?  That’s up to you to decide. We’re just causing the debate to take place.

So a shot of the infamous incident at Atlanta shows Edwards driving away as Keselowski’s car flips in the air. The headline reads, “Have at it, boys.  Approved.”

Who approved it?

That’s the point: debate with amongst yourselves. Did Edwards approve it? Did Keselowski approve? How about NASCAR, by virtue of their light punishment? Other fans? Do you? 

It’s a hot topic and that’s Promotion 101. I don’t want to offend either driver, but both of them eagerly pursued reaching the top level of American motorsports and along with it comes scrutiny. It comes with the territory.

The spotlight gets hot. Things happen. Welcome to the big leagues, boys!

I’d be negligent in my role as promoter to point out to you that the three-race suspension will take place at Bristol, Martinsville and Phoenix. The first race Edwards will run when the suspension is lifted?

Texas!  April 18th.  The Samsung Mobile 500!

“Have at it, boys.”

From the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
 
(March 11, 2010)
 
Sporting News goes behind the scenes—and off the track—with Sprint Cup Series driver Marcos Ambrose.
 
My first car was ... a small four-wheel drive.
 
My dream car is ... Ferrari F40.
 
The best cruising music is ... Kings of Leon.
 
My average freeway cruising speed is ... 70 mph.
 
When I get a flat … I change it in 2 minutes.
 
The last time I used a GPS was ... finding every track in the United States.
 
Hybrids are ... cool.
 
I got my last speeding ticket for going ... 65 mph in a 50-mph zone in Virginia.
 
My No. 1 car tip is ... don’t drive tired.
 
My No. 1 pet peeve with fellow motorists is ... tailgating.
 
On a scale of 1-10, my road rage rating is ... a 1. I am laid-back.
 
The Sprint Cup driver who’d be the most maniacal on the road is ... Greg Biffle.
 
I wouldn’t be caught dead in a ... Mini Moke.
 
— As told to Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service