Gossage slams F1 for head-to-head Texas schedule conflict

Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage is furious with Formula 1.

The 2019 draft schedule released by Formula 1 Friday reveals the United States Grand Prix weekend will be Nov. 1-3 at the 3.427-mile Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Austin.

That's the same weekend when NASCAR holds its playoff race at the 1.5-mile oval track. Announced this past April, Texas is the site of the second race in the third round of the NASCAR postseason; this year's race is Nov. 4, while the F1 race is two weeks earlier on Oct. 21.

NASCAR started racing at Texas twice in 2005. The fall date has always been scheduled in early November.

To Gossage, this is unacceptable for race fans who would have liked to attend both events.

"Shame on Formula 1 for doing this to the fans," Gossage said in a statement. "Fans have recognized this as the NASCAR date on this weekend since its inception long before Circuit of the Americas was built. I would think a lot of fans, myself included, would enjoy going to both races. Now Formula 1 is making fans choose only one. Yet another bad call by Formula 1 showing their infamous indifference toward the fans."

Next year will not be the first time that NASCAR and F1 have gone head-to-head. The NASCAR race in Texas and the F1 event in Austin also clashed in 2014.

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