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NASCAR America: Eddie Gossage using Martinsville fallout, Dale Jr. to promote Texas race

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President of Texas Motor Speedway Eddie Gossage discusses coming after Martinsville, why he loves his job, his plans for Dale Jr., and the improvements they have made.

Eddie Gossage hit the jackpot this week.

The president and general manager of Texas Motor Speedway has quite a bit on his plate to promote this weekend’s Cup playoff race at the 1.5-mile track.

Not only does he have Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s last race at the track to entice fans, he now has the controversy between Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin that erupted last weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

After Hamlin wrecked Elliott from the lead two laps from the scheduled distance, the fans at the track showed their displeasure as the two drivers had a heated discussion on the backstretch. Their uproar continued on social media and the radio waves throughout the week.

The lights at Martinsville were still hot when Gossage, who has operated Texas Motor Speedway since it opened in 1997, went to work to use the mayhem to his advantage.

Soon, an advertisement declaring Elliott as “The People’s Champion” was debuted by the track.

Gossage called into NASCAR America to discuss this weekend’s race and how he’s promoting it.

“You want to come after Martinsville and Talladega, because after both of those races everybody’s mad at everybody,” Gossage said. “Certainly from Martinsville last weekend there’s some stories coming out of that one that we didn’t quite see happening and it does make it more interesting.”

Gossage added that his track isn’t the best place for someone to seek payback for an accident that happened on a short track.

“Let’s be honest, at 195 m.ph. I’m not sure they’re going to be getting retribution this weekend or anything like that, " Gossage said.

But that won’t keep Gossage from milking the feud for all it’s worth.

Watch the above video for the full interview.