NASCAR Nixes 2nd Winston Texas Race

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) â€” Texas Motor Speedway is still waiting for that Winston Cup race NASCAR promised. <br><br>NASCAR added Winston Cup races in Joliet, Ill., and Kansas City, Kan., for the 2001 season,

Wednesday, May 10th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) â€” Texas Motor Speedway is still waiting for that Winston Cup race NASCAR promised.

NASCAR added Winston Cup races in Joliet, Ill., and Kansas City, Kan., for the 2001 season, and again refused to give Texas Motor Speedway a second date.

``I had been told repeatedly they could not add new events to the schedule without dropping some, but they found some way for tracks they own to fit in,'' Eddie Gossage, the Texas speedway's general manager, said Tuesday.

``Nobody has explained to me yet what has changed.''

Both of the new tracks and the Homestead-Miami Speedway that was added to the schedule in 1999 are owned by International Speedway Corp., run by the same group that controls NASCAR.

Since the Texas track opened in 1997, Gossage and TMS owner Bruton Smith have been seeking another Winston Cup race for the circuit's largest venue.

NASCAR has never actually given a Winston Cup date to Texas Motor Speedway. The current race there was acquired when TMS parent company Speedway Motorsports bought half of North Wilkesboro Speedway and one of that track's two dates.

``It is very frustrating to do what we did. No place in the world has invested more money in racing than we did in building Texas Motor Speedway. We did it based on a promise,'' Gossage said. ``It is frustrating not to have them live up to their promise.''

Gossage said that NASCAR officials promised another Winston Cup event for Texas Motor Speedway by a certain date that has come and gone.

On Monday, NASCAR announced instead that it would stage new Winston Cup and Busch races next year at the Chicagoland Speedway still under construction and the new Kansas Speedway.