TMS president Gossage offers drivers a ‘reward’ for throwing helmet
Quote selected text Published February 29th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage says he was glad to learn that NASCAR has decided to loosen the reins on drivers this season, and as a result he has put up a “reward” for any helmet tossed during competition.
“I’m offering $15,000 for any helmet thrown by a Cup series driver during a race between now and the April 6th Samsung 500,” Gossage said in a statement from TMS released Friday. “I have a huge helmet collection from drivers through the years and it would be great to add to the collection.”
NASCAR officials said earlier this year that past on-track incidents involving participants in its Sprint Cup Series led to stiffer penalties for such infractions. As a result, fans have complained that much of the color and emotion has been removed from the sport.
Brian France, NASCAR CEO, said in January that officials were looking at the situation, “and making sure that our policies of enforcement don’t make it where our drivers can’t express themselves.
“There are lots of characters in our sport. There’s lots of emotion flying fast and heavy at the events,” France said. “What you’re always worried about really isn’t necessarily the specific incident, it’s really escalation. That’s what commissioners and officials in any sport are mostly concerned with. But on your way to making sure things don’t escalate, you want to be pretty stern with your penalties. There’s no question it can … restrict … the drivers expressing themselves. We want to see more of that.”
Gossage, continually looking for ways to promote his sprawling facility, as well as the sport itself, says he believes that “as NASCAR allows the drivers to open up and show their personalities – even their frustrations – I imagine the likelihood of true emotions are more likely to bubble to the top.
“I’ve seen some helmets thrown during a race and never have they injured anyone or damaged another driver’s car. We’ll see what happens.”
Bookmark to:
- Raines fined, loses points for throwing helmet
- Gossage not interested in Humpy’s job
- Purse for spring Texas Cup race tops 7 million
- NASCAR declines Texas’ offer to host another Cup test
- Earnhardt’s vintage racing suit stolen from TMS
Thank god!
More emotion= more involved race for fans
no more boring sponsor reeling robots
LMAO AWESOME!
leave it up to Eddie, i hope i get shots of this one. maybe it will be Robby or will it be Michael.
lol that sounds funny then NASCAR will probably fine the poor guy if it hits something. That will be interesting though!
hey robby, i smell a montreal a cookin.
While I like the general purpose behind this, if I were NASCAR and one of my track promoters was telling the participants in my series to endanger someones life, I’d be pretty peeved, and do all I can in my power to take a date away from that track (Is it to late to appeal the Ferko lawsuit?)
I’m curious..How can throwing a helmet at someones car endanger someones life? I mean honestly lol not unless the helmet bounces back off the car and hits the “throwee” in the head lol. Please enlighten me on that Fisha. Reading some of your other comments on other blogs you seem to know alot, or act like you do lol. I for one would be happy to see some emotion return to the sport. It really has got boring. I must say that Daytona 500 didn’t live up to the hype as they put it out to be either regardless of who was up front. The 2007 500 was by far better. just my opinion
Andrew wrote:
hahha you have to get rid of Kurt Busch and Mikey Waltrip then….which really come to think of it wouldnt matter much anyways
i disagree with this article entirely…lets promote childish behavior like throwing stuff…i agree with nascar loosening the reigns…but this is just STUPID
It could cause the person in the car who the helmet is being thrown at to crash, due to a number of reasons. And if both drivers are out of the car, and one driver whips his helmet towards another who is also no longer wearing their helmet, and it hits said driver on the head hard enough it could cause a lot of damage whether its a cracked skull, to a broken nose, to a broken orbital bone or jaw bone, all of which can be life threating.
I’m fine with drivers getting out of their cars and throwing fists, but throwing a 4-5 pound hard object at somebody is just a bit over the line.
The drivers shouldn’t be allowed to throw punches at each other, thats just childish and can be avoided while still seeing things heat up a bit. Getting in each others faces and yelling and a bit of shoving each other would be good to see now and then, but full out fighting is just a bit too much considering either of them could decide to press charges of assault and then both could get into deep trouble with NASCAR. Throwing a helmet should be okay as long as it isn’t at anyone personally and isn’t meant to actually cause harm to someone. There should be a limit to what they allow to happen, but showing some emotion should be no problem. It is a bit crazy to offer a reward for throwing helmets though, thats just asking for trouble.. lol
All drivers could sign waivers and agree to put on boxing gloves and go out behind the garage (or better yet in-front of the fans) and throw hands. Every driver except for Morgan Shephard, Bill Elliot, and maybe Mark Martin would agree to do it, and most of the drivers have also mentioned that they really would like something like that. I’d suggest they have an MMA match, but most of the drivers probably don’t even know what the term “Guard” means relating to that sport. l0l (most of them just don’t seem like MMA fans)
Let’s see:
Busch vs. Stewart - they will be off probation by then
Would love to see Harvick vs. Montoya again
Gordon vs. Kenseth was good
Edwards vs. Kenseth was good
Hell, anyone against Kenseth is amusing!!
don’t forget petty vs hamlin!
or spencer vs busch!
or crocker vs evernham! lololol
Like Robby needs encouragement! Gossage is just like his mentor Humpy. They sent him to run Texas from Charlotte when it opened. Where will the money go? To a charity? I think they should have an official helmet toss at Texas and the winner gets a 10 gallon hat stuffed with cash. Then the winner decides where that money goes.
George, would they decide the winner by Distance or accuracy to a target?
Wasn’t this this guy that had the stupid billboard sign’s up that he had to remove. Dale Jrs that is.
That’s a good question, Fisha. I personally like the accuracy angle. Because if you don’t hit your mark, it doesn’t how far it can go.
Ok I figured this out. It could be 3 competitions with the person who has the most points at the end being the winner.
Competition 1 is an accuracy one against a person (well carboard type cutout) And depending on where you hit it you get more points (ie; Head/Groin worth the most) and you’d have to throw the helmet from 10 or 15 feet away.
Competition 2 is also an accuracy one, but its against a car. The car would be moving at lets say 25-30 mph and you would be 10 - 15 feet away from the car, and depending on where you hit the car you get more points.
Competition 3 would be for distance, where the farther you throw it the more points you get.
If there would be a tie, then they would have a Throw-off (IDK what that would be yet)
This would be open to all Cup & Nationwide (and whatever other series are there) drivers.
It could be shown on SPEED.
Fisha, that’s better than half of the shows on television now. Now you got me thinking of that “King of The Hill” episode where Hank has Don Meredith throw the football but misses the target. Hanks blames it on Meredith wearing a coat. A good episode.
Well what is up with this!!! Have we degragated to “King of The Hill” from the main story
line of a promoter paying drivers to toss helmets at moving cars.
Leave it up to the new best bud’s George and Fisha to come up with making fun of a serious story. Lol
Bob I see nothing serious about what the promoter is doing, I see a childish immature person trying to instigate somebody into breaking the rules.
Whereas what I suggested is an actual serious competition which not only could be added as an attraction during that race weekend, but could also be shown on SPEED (or maybe even ESPN), and if it works out could possibly even become a annual event that is part of this weekend with proceeds from it going to Charity, by maybe having all the helmets signed and auctioned off.
Oh and while he may promise to pay that driver $15,000 which is the cost of the fine, what about the 25 points that the driver/owner will see disappear…? He can’t give those back…..
King Of The Hill was a hit show long before Boogity, Boogity appeared on that same network in 2001. It’s as American as you can get cartoon wise. You know that Bob. Hank stepping aside to let Meredith try tossing the football into that beer can in an attempt to win a big payday reminded me of this Eddie Gossage deal which is also based in Texas. It’s all about fun at someone else’s expense. That’s what comedy is. But like my new best friend Fisha stated, what about the points?
i like where eddie is going with this….and i have yet to see anyone get hurt from a helmet being thrown…they all just bounce off a windshield or the door….and i never once saw a driver crash because of a tossed helmet…its a great idea to get back at nascar from taking the fun out of nascar…come on one of the most famous moments in nascar history was a fist fight…i dont care if the field isnt full of corn fed backwoods moonshiners they still get just as pissed off….i wouldnt mind seeing harvick and stewart vs big shrub and montoya in an all out fight
yeah but that still leaves the thought of the points. He can give them the fine money, but he can not give them back points. And in todays NASCAR points are more important then ever.