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Jeff Gordon turned down chance to run in Mexico
DuPont told Jeff Gordon that they would be willing to sponsor him in a Mexico City Busch car, but Gordon declined.
"Staying in North America is extremely important. Canada seems like the next natural place for us to go. Obviously Mexico went well for the Busch cars; that might be a good option (for a Cup race) as well. But I want to see us on an oval. I don't want to see us on a road course in Canada. We can put on such a better show for the fans. And I know there are a lot of fans in Canada who follow NASCAR. I wish we had an oval track up there. "If we're going to go there, we need to start that process." Texas promoter Eddie Gossage, who will likely reap dividends next month from NASCAR's Mexico City venture, says it's important for NASCAR to keep up the momentum from the Mexico race. "It was great for us, because about 26 or 28 percent of the Fort Worth-Dallas Metroplex is Hispanic," Gossage said. "Why market only to 74 percent? Let's market to 100 percent. "If we can develop a diverse set of drivers that the community can identify with, that will help us. I'm glad Michel Jourdain is running (Busch), but I'd like to see some of these other guys run all year long ... certainly in Texas, Vegas, California, Homestead, markets with a very big Hispanic population. "I don't always say great things about NASCAR, but this time they put their money where their mouth is, and they're doing something about diversity." So why doesn't Gossage put together a deal for Adrian Fernandez to race the Texas 500 on April 17? "I don't hire drivers, that's not my job," Gossage said. "You used to do that in the '60s and '70s but not anymore. And I don't think the Mexico promoter put that deal together for Adrian." But it got done. "Yes, it got done, and I'd like to see it get done again," Gossage said. "If NASCAR can do that for Mexico City, let's follow it up and do that for other places, too." Gossage says he was impressed with media coverage of the Mexico 200. "The Sunday front page of the Dallas Morning News had a front-page story of NASCAR goes to Mexico,"Gossage said. "And the front page of the Houston Chronicle had a similar story. Those things have to translate into greater acceptance. "Now NASCAR has to follow it up and show it wasn't a one-time deal, that this show has legs." But is it fair to ask Busch team owners to carry this NASCAR venture on their backs? A Mexico City run may play well financially for Dale Earnhardt Inc., Richard Childress and Jack Roush, whose teams finished 1-2-3, but what about the regular Busch owners? Shouldn't it be up to the better funded Nextel Cup teams to carry this burden?
"I heard that a lot of guys got paid a whole lot of money to go run there," Gossage said. "Apparently that worked."
Impound rules to expand, says NASCAR
NASCAR is still tinkering with its new impound rules that have eliminated any practice sessions after qualifying at certain race tracks.
The cars were impounded after qualifying in California two weeks ago, giving crews what amounted to an off-day during the weekend race track activities. With the cars in NASCAR’s possession, teams were not allowed to make changes until the race began.
But the schedule reverts back to its old ways this weekend in Las Vegas, where teams are allowed to practice on Saturday.
Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition, acknowledged that the differing schedules can be confusing.
“There are television commitments. Race tracks had pre-existing commitments with other networks,” he said in explaining why there isn’t one uniform schedule for every race weekend.
However, Pemberton said the sanctioning body is working on changing that.
“We at NASCAR have to get back to a common format,” he said. “We’re pressing toward the impound schedule.”
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