Texas Motor Speedway held the first signature sporting event in the state amid the coronavirus pandemic when IndyCar started its season last month with the Genesys 300. The track then became the state's first sporting venue to open its doors to fans for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race, the O'Reilly Auto Parts 500.
As far as TMS president Eddie Gossage is concerned, everything went about as well as expected for the 15,000 to 20,000 fans in attendance.
"Our staff executed things really well," Gossage said. "We converted in a short period of time from paper tickets to mobile tickets. That's no small task. Our team did a really good job with that. I was pleased.
"It's still a bummer to not have the place packed. We usually see people grilling out, smoking barbecue and crawfish boils, so it was frustrating not to have that. But the people that were there were having a great time. I was on the concourse and everyone was coming over and saying how great it was to be doing something normal. That's what you want. It was a good race day."
A race day that ended with the famed No. 3 car, driven by Austin Dillon, in Victory Lane. Gossage shared a number of his post-race thoughts with the Star-Telegram on Monday afternoon.
