{"id":10096,"date":"2017-06-09T15:16:59","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T20:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=10096"},"modified":"2017-06-09T15:16:59","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T20:16:59","slug":"eddie-gossage-says-fans-will-see-fast-exciting-races-at-texas-motor-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2017\/06\/09\/eddie-gossage-says-fans-will-see-fast-exciting-races-at-texas-motor-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Gossage says fans will see fast, exciting races at Texas Motor Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike Haag<\/em><\/p>\n

FORT WORTH, Texas \u2013 Texas Motor Speedway<\/a> President Eddie Gossage<\/strong> thinks this weekend\u2019s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series<\/a> and Verizon IndyCar Series<\/a> races are going to exciting when the trucks and cars race on the newly paved and reconfigured 1.5-mile oval.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage said that he expects an exciting and fast-paced race for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Verizon IndyCar Series races at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. (Brandon Wade\/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe are excited to welcome back the NASCAR Trucks and Verizon IndyCar Series to Texas this weekend,\u201d Gossage said.  \u201cMorning, noon and night we are going to have all kinds of activities going on this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

The weekend races features the NCWTS winstaronlinegaming.com 400 on Friday and the Verizon IndyCar Series Rainguard Water Sealers 600 on Saturday, along with the Texas Off-Road Ruckus in the speedway infield.  The two-day event features action from the high-flying SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks as well as an expo and interactive areas for off-road racing enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

While the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series cars have already race on the new track in April, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns and will compete for the first time on the newly paved oval and the reconfiguration of Turns 1-2, where the banking has been reduced from 24 to 20 degrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is fun about the NASCAR Trucks is they don\u2019t know what they don\u2019t know,\u201d Gossage said.  \u201cThey\u2019ll do some things that the Cup drivers know you can\u2019t do.  The truck guys regularly do that kind of thing and pull it off.<\/p>\n

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Texas’ Austin Wayne Self will be one of the drivers competing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night. Photo by Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cYou sit there and often say to yourself that can\u2019t believe that the pickup guys are going 185 miles per hour and are doing that,\u201d Gossage said.  \u201cThen they pull it out and you just can\u2019t believe how amazing it was that they just did on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s NCWTS race will mark the 39th race at TMS since the first race (Pronto Auto Parts 400G) was held here in 1997.  Since then, 21 different drivers have visited Victory Lane.  Friday\u2019s race is set for 7 p.m. and will broadcast live on FOX Sports 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NASCAR Truck Series has always been a great series,\u201d Gossage said.  \u201cTexas is the truck capitol of the world and the national car of the state of Texas is a pickup truck.  This race is one of the things that we so much look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty eight drivers have entered the 167-lap, 250.5-mile race.  Johnny Sauter, who won last week\u2019s race at Dover, enters the race with a 52-point lead over Christopher Bell.<\/p>\n

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Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage said that the first 20,000 fans through the gates on Saturday will receive a Graham Rahal bobblehead.
(Brandon Wade\/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway)<\/p><\/div>\n

Eighteen-year old Kaz Grala, who is ranked third and leads the rookie class, has three top-100 finishes in the first six races, including a victory in his first start at Daytona in February.  Grala leads a rookie field that includes: Noah Gragson, Chase Briscoe, Grand Enfinger, Cody Coughlin, Wendell Chavous, Austin Cindric, Stewart Friesen and Justin Haley.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is so much young talent in our sport today,\u201d Gossage said.  \u201cThere are a bunch of young guys that are showing their stuff and it\u2019s kind of fun to watch them on their way up the ladder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are trying to show their stuff and prove themselves and that is exciting to watch.  We always have great NASCAR Truck races and I think Friday night will be one of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Verizon IndyCar Series will also make their annual stop at TMS on Saturday night for the Rainguard Water Sealers 600. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. and will broadcast live on the NBC Sports Network.<\/p>\n

The VICS race marks the 29th time for the lightening-fast, open-wheel cars to compete at TMS.  This race will mark the first time for the cars to compete on the newly paved and reconfigured track.  A test session was held in April, which provided crucial data for the teams in preparation for this race.<\/p>\n

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Scott Dixon sails into Turn 1 during practice for the Rainguard Water Sealers 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo by Chris Owens<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cTony Kanaan, who was won here before and the Indy 500 too, he told me that they might run five or six wide in Turns 1 and 2.\u201d Gossage said.  \u201cThe back straightaway is no wider than it has been before and there is going to be a funnel in a hurry for all of those cars to get back in the right spot before everything gets tighten up over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

At last year\u2019s Firestone 600 at TMS, Graham Rahal nosed James Hinchcliffe by 0.0080 seconds, which was the closest finish in history at TMS and the fifth closest in IndyCar history.  Gossage said he expects another close finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the cars are going to run very well on this new surface and they are going to be very fast,\u201d Gossage said.  \u201cPart of the chance we took at lowering the banking in Turns 1 and 2 was to slow the cars down.  We knew that it would be that way for the first couple of years at least.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew pavement means faster speed until they wear some of the grip out of it.  So I think you are going to see cars qualifying in the 230 mph range for this race and that is flat hauling the mail.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been seven different winners in eight Verizon IndyCar Series races so far this season.  Sebastien Bourdais, James Hinchcliffe, Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal have already posted victories.  Rahal is the only repeat winner after he swept both races at Detroit last weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt tells you that when they throw the green flag Saturday night, you have no idea who is going to win,\u201d Gossage said.  \u201cTypically it used to be a Penske car or a Ganassi car or maybe an Andretti Motorsports car, but the truth is that pretty much everyone in the field has a chance to win it.  It going to be one of those deals where you just have to be here on the edge of your seat to see who is going to pull this one out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike Haag FORT WORTH, Texas \u2013 Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage thinks this weekend\u2019s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Verizon IndyCar Series races are going to exciting when the trucks and cars race on the newly paved and reconfigured 1.5-mile oval. \u201cWe are excited to welcome back the NASCAR Trucks and Verizon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[160,21,83],"class_list":["post-10096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-texas-motor-speedway","tag-nascar-camping-world-truck-series","tag-texas-motor-speedway","tag-verizon-indycar-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/BW018Texas_Motor_Speedway_No_Limits_Luncheon__Media_Day.jpg?fit=5184%2C3456&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-2CQ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10101,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10096\/revisions\/10101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}