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Formula 1: United States Grand Prix an ‘assault by F1 on NASCAR’?

By Asher Fair

AUSTIN, TX - OCTOBER 21: Kimi Raikkonen of Finland driving the (7) Scuderia Ferrari SF71H leads Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes WO9 into turn one at the start during the United States Formula One Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on October 21, 2018 in Austin, United States. (Photo by Charles Coates/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TX - OCTOBER 21: Kimi Raikkonen of Finland driving the (7) Scuderia Ferrari SF71H leads Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes WO9 into turn one at the start during the United States Formula One Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on October 21, 2018 in Austin, United States. (Photo by Charles Coates/Getty Images) /
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Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage claims that Formula 1 running the United States Grand Prix on the same weekend as the NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at his track is an “assault by Formula 1 on NASCAR”.

The annual United States Grand Prix is scheduled to take place at Circuit of the Americas this Sunday, November 3. This race is the 19th of 21 races on the 2019 Formula 1 schedule.

The 20-turn, 3.427-mile (5.515-kilometer) Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas is the lone purpose-built Formula 1 track in the United States and has hosted the United States’s lone Formula 1 race since 2012.

A 220-mile drive to the north takes you right to Texas Motor Speedway, which is scheduled to host the AAA Texas 500 on Sunday, November 3 as well. This race is the second of three races in the round of 8 of the four-round, 10-race 2019 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

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The four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas has hosted NASCAR Cup Series races since 1997, and it has hosted a playoff race in early November since 2005.

Only once have the Formula 1 race and the round of 8 playoff race taken place on the same weekend. That happened back in 2014.

It is set to happen again this weekend, and Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage is not happy about it, calling the scheduling of the United States Grand Prix on this date an “assault by Formula 1 on NASCAR”.

Here is what he had to say about the matter on the Autoweek Podcast.

"“Here’s how I look at it. There’s very little competition between NASCAR and Formula 1, but there is some, and I think it’s an absolute insult, lack of respect, lack of professionalism on the part of Formula 1 to schedule a race on the very same day, three hours away from a NASCAR Cup race.“There are 52 weekends in the year. They’re going to run NASCAR at Texas Motor Speedway two weekends a year. There’s 50 other weekends that Formula 1 could schedule a race. People say, ‘Well, (F1) travels all over the globe, you’ve got to run here in Texas, you’ve got to run in Mexico and have to run those two races close together because of travel. OK, then run Mexico on Nov. 3. Run the U.S. Grand Prix a couple weeks later or flip-flop them.“To me, it’s an assault by Formula 1 on NASCAR. It’s not about Texas Motor Speedway. It’s about something bigger than that. It’s about the sport. It’s not good for either. The loser is the race fan, and they’re who I work for. I know that while there might not be a great deal of crossover, there is some. Some people are going to be forced to choose one over the other. Whether it’s 50-50 or 99-1, that’s not good for the sport.”"

From the 2015 season through the 2018 season, the first four seasons of the return of Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to the Formula 1 schedule as the host of the Mexican Grand Prix, the Mexican Grand Prix was the race contested on the same day as the round of 8 playoff race at Texas Motor Speedway, so Gossage has a point.

The United States Grand Prix had been held one week earlier during these four seasons after the 2014 conflict, until this year.

This isn’t the first time Gossage has been outspoken about the matter, either. Back when the 2014 Formula 1 schedule was revealed in 2013, he felt the same way, and he didn’t hold back when the 2019 schedule was revealed last August.

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ABC is set to broadcast the United States Grand Prix live from Circuit of the Americas beginning at 2:05 p.m. ET this Sunday, November 3. NBC Sports Network is set to broadcast the AAA Texas 500 live from Texas Motor Speedway beginning slightly under one hour later at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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