Texas Motor Speedway officials are at it again
Kenny Bruce
Kenny Bruce is a three-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association's George Cunningham Writer of the Year Award. He joined Street & Smith's Sports Group in 2001.
Texas Motor Speedway officials have never been known to err on the side of caution when it comes to promoting their 1.5-mile track.
So it’s no surprise to see that they’re up to their old tricks, using 15 billboards in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex to tout NASCAR’s “relaxed” attitude regarding on-track action heading into the 2010 Sprint Cup Series season.
The Daytona 500 may be on the minds of most race fans, but TMS President Eddie Gossage and his staff aren’t sitting idle.
The most recent ad campaign meshes the slogan “Approved” with a variety of Cup drivers and on-track incidents. Examples include a photo of Joey Logano’s No. 20 Toyota in mid-crash (Approved: Tailgating); a battered No. 48 of Jimmie Johnson (Approved: Door Dings); and a larger-than-life mugshot of Juan Pablo Montoya (Approved: Road Rage).
The Speedway generated plenty of publicity two years ago with billboard ads referring to the strained relationship between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and stepmother Teresa Earnhardt. The billboards were eventually removed at the request of Earnhardt Jr.’s sister, Kelley.
NASCAR returns to TMS April 16-18 for the Samsung Mobile 500.
• And that leads me to … yet another difference between NASCAR and the stick-and-ball sports: A couple of NBA players found themselves facing charges recently for bringing guns into the locker room. At TMS, the pole winner for the Cup race is presented a shotgun and the race winner receives six-shooter pistols.
I’m not exactly sure what to make of that.
