Courtesy of Texas Motor Speedway Media Relations

FORT WORTH, Texas – Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage returns to Middle Tennessee State in Murfreesboro, Tenn., this weekend as his alma mater honors him with the prestigious Distinguished Alumni Award.

The award, given by the MTSU Alumni Association, is presented to an alumnus representing excellence and distinction through their professional career, loyal support and service to the broader community. Gossage will accept his award during MTSU’s homecoming festivities Friday beginning at 4 p.m. Gossage also will receive recognition at other various homecoming activities throughout the weekend.

“It will be great to see the homecoming parade and the crowds along East Main and the pride the students have,” Gossage said. “It’s just really great to see that this was the place I picked when I was coming out of high school and look at how it has succeeded. It’s obviously doing something right. The university and Dr. (Sidney) McPhee, they are doing things right. That’s why I’m proud to say I’m from Middle Tennessee.”

Gossage, a Nashville native and graduate of MTSU’s then-College of Mass Communication, has guided Texas Motor Speedway in his role as president and general manager for more than two decades dating to the construction of the world-renowned motorsports facility and its official opening in 1997. He has continued to show his support to MTSU throughout his career. Gossage has hosted MTSU alumni at the speedway and served on the board of professional advisors for the MTSU College of Media and Entertainment.  

“As I think back on Middle Tennessee State, it was a great place to learn and a great place to grow up,” Gossage said. “It’s one of the most fortunate decisions of my life.

Thirty-eight seasons later, I’m still in the racing business and it has been very good to me. It’s exploded at a level and grown at a pace that I could have never foreseen. But I was fortunate to be at the right place, at the right time with the skills I had learned at Middle Tennessee. I was able to apply it and have success.”