Dreaming of one asphalt oval, and five Olympic rings (cont'd)

And why not? What started as the dream of a sales manager at an Arlington, Texas, trash-hauling company -- he figured, if Atlanta could get the Olympics, so could Dallas -- eventually turned into a serious regional effort to host a $2 billion Summer Games. Gossage said other members of the area's organizing committee liked the idea of including auto racing, seeing it as something that could set their bid apart. For NASCAR and auto racing in general, Gossage saw Olympic involvement as a way of capturing the worldwide audience that's glued to curling and gymnastics every four years.

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To think about Jeff Gordon or the late Dale Earnhardt marching in with the U.S. Olympic team in the opening ceremonies ... I mean, how special would that have been?

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EDDIE GOSSAGE

"I know I was particularly enthused at the prospect of not only hosting an Olympic event, but a unique Olympic event. Something that was historic and special," he said. "I truly believed it was something that was good for our sport in the long run. It would expose our sport to people who wouldn't normally watch it. I mean, I'm watching water polo, women's water polo, [recently], and I was excited about it. Just like that, I felt like it would expose motorsports to people who otherwise might not have been exposed to it. That would have been exciting."

But for motorsports to have any chance, the track president knew, he'd have to find a way to create one equitable competition out of all the disparate disciplines that exist around the globe. So he mailed questionnaires out to drivers in NASCAR, people in Formula One and World Rally, asking for ideas. He received almost all of them back.

"I vividly remember Jeff Gordon's response, because it was written, and it was pages," Gossage said. "He really spent a lot of time to give me thoughts on what the event should look like. Because we're unique in that we're an oval racing country, by and large. The rest of the world is road racing. I remember asking the question at the time, how do we convince Michael Schumacher and Dale Earnhardt to race against each other, and make sure it's all fair and even? That was a real tough balancing act, because of the international differences and the cultural differences in racing around the globe."

No surprise, but many of the drivers questioned thought their style of racing would be most fair. Gossage surmised that the final product might have looked something like the Race of Champions, an annual showcase that allows drivers representing different nations to compete against one another in identically prepared cars and on parallel tracks. Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have both driven in the event, which will be held in London's Wembley Stadium in December. "Over time, we realized, that's what we were developing, that kind of concept," Gossage said.

But the conceptual never became reality. The U.S. Olympic Committee found the Dallas bid to be short on specifics, and eliminated the city in late 2001. New York eventually won the American bid, but lost to London for the right to host the 2012 Games. The Dallas effort has since been shuttered, likely taking any hopes of auto racing Olympic medals with it. "It was a tough thing to manage all these communities to try and get a unified front," said Gossage, referring to the tensions that have always existed between Dallas and Fort Worth. "I think it could have happened. But it's going to be tough to get everybody back to that table again."

It might have all been for naught, anyway. Even if Dallas had won the right to host the 2012 Games, auto racing would have almost certainly been a hard sell to the International Olympic Committee, which has since eliminated demonstration sports in an effort to curb the sprawling size of the Summer Games. Of course, the IOC seems to have made an exception in the case of Beijing, which has added the Chinese martial art of wushu to this year's program. The 2008 Games also mark the debut of bicycle motocross. Can cars be far behind?

Maybe not. We'll likely never see Kyle Busch and Juan Montoya walk into an Olympic stadium alongside Kobe Bryant and Michael Phelps. But gazing out his office window at Texas Motor Speedway, Eddie Gossage can still dream.

"I can see the podium, and awarding of the gold, silver and bronze," he said. "To think about Jeff Gordon or the late Dale Earnhardt marching in with the U.S. Olympic team in the opening ceremonies ... I mean, how special would that have been?"

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.

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• 1on1: Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage