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Curtain Falls on Texas Motor Speedway's Busy Inaugural Season

5 November 1997

Curtain Falls on Texas Motor Speedway's Busy Inaugural Season

    FORT WORTH-DALLAS, Nov. 5 -- When the final chord of The
Rolling Stones legendary rock anthem "Brown Sugar" finally stopped
reverberating and the curtain came down, so ended Texas Motor Speedway's
eventful inaugural season in which an estimated 1.25 million people poured
through the venue's gates.
    Along the way, Texas Motor Speedway made a few headlines:

    * A lack of practice time due to heavy rains resulted in controversy as
      the NASCAR Winston Cup Series drivers struggled with the tight racing
      lines.

    * A first-time winner on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit, Jeff Burton,
      wheeled his Roush Racing Thunderbird to victory lane in the inaugural
      NASCAR Winston Cup race at the huge racing facility.

    * The television ratings for Texas Motor Speedway's inaugural NASCAR
      Winston Cup race was the highest in history for any stock car race
      outside of Daytona; the purse posted by the speedway was the third
      largest purse of the 1997 season; and the crowd, estimated by some in
      the 200,000 spectator range, was the second-largest of the NASCAR
      Winston Cup season.

    * The first nighttime Indy Car race in modern history, the True Value 400,
      saw breathtaking side-by-side racing that was unprecedented in any form
      of open-wheel racing.  Many said the race served as the defining moment
      for the fledgling Indy Racing League.

    * A Victory Lane altercation between A.J. Foyt and Arie Luyendyk made news
      headlines around the globe as the two argued over who was the true
      winner.  In the aftermath, Luyendyk was named winner and the sanctioning
      body, USAC, was dropped by the Indy Racing League.

    * Country stars LeAnn Rimes, Vince Gill, Wynonna, Travis Tritt, Randy
      Travis, Hank Williams Jr., and others lit up the CountryFest stage while
      a crowd, reported to be the largest in country music history, battled
      stifling heat.  CBS TV broadcast the concert nationwide.

    * RockFest, featuring Bush, No Doubt, The Wallflowers, Smashing Pumpkins
      and many others, drew a crowd of 400,000 people to the largest live rock
      show in history, according to the promoters -- larger than the legendary
      Woodstock.

    * The Rolling Stones "Bridges to Babylon World Tour" rumbled through Texas
      Motor Speedway and helped close out the year with a prestigious event.
      The "World's Greatest Rock 'n Roll Band" rocked the house with a huge
      light, sound and pyrotechnic show for two hours and 15 minutes.
    The speedway was widely acclaimed internationally in the world of
motorsports.  However, few realized the impact it would also make on the music
world as it hosted more concert fans than any other venue in Texas.
    "When all was said and done, stars like Jeff Burton, Rusty Wallace, Mick
Jagger, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Wynonna, Dale Jarrett, Hank Williams Jr.,
Eddie Cheever, Mark Martin, Vince Gill, Dale Earnhardt, Keith Richards, Arie
Luyendyk, Charlie Daniels, A.J. Foyt, Randy Travis and more made their mark at
Texas Motor Speedway," said speedway general manager Eddie Gossage.  "It
certainly has been a momentous year.
    "We have a long list of things to work on," said Gossage.  "For instance,
after our parking problems as a result of heavy rains during our NASCAR
weekend in April, we spent more than $4 million to add additional parking and
we now have more paved parking than Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.  We
aren't afraid to take responsibility and fix things.
    "But, right now, I think everyone has a right to think back and remember
what a great year 1997 was for our fans at Texas Motor Speedway," he said.

SOURCE  Speedway Motorsports, Inc.