So also in the mix during April 1, we had Texas Motor Speedway. For a sport which has always tried to balance fun and business, the folks at TMS certainly took a pop from some media who didn’t see the fun, or didn’t take the time to delve into, President Eddie Gossage's plo. saying Dallas DJ Terry Dorsey had accepted Gossage's offer of $100,000 to legally change his name to TexasMotorSpeedway.com.. The story was reported across the country, as media outlets ran the story, which came out on TMS letterhead, before Gossage admitted it was a fake, intended as an April Fool's joke. Gossag. even boasted on his Facebook page that news of Dorsey's name change was being mentioned by major media outlets. The outlets, which included print and TV, never took the time to see that Gossage had offered Dale Earnhardt Jr. $100,000 in ’08 to drive in the IndyCar event at TMS, which Earnhardt declined, or that TMS on April Fool's Day in ’08 released a statement that it was adding a $900M “retractable roof that would be completed by 2011. The track admitted the hoax as April 1 dawned, and even went so far as to create another viral video lampooning Tiger Woods’ recent interview in explaining away the prank. It was a great ploy for TMS, which will have racing coming up in a few weeks, and a nice pop for NASCAR in a slow time of year, even though it rankled the media who were taken by the prank.
The irony in the whole situation with TMS is that many of the best pranks on April 1 around sports were created by the media themselves, and literally hundreds of media outlets this year tried to one up themselves in spreading bogus name changes, takeover stories and media events that didn’t exist. Still for this one, the Raceway and Gossage found a slow news day and a credible path to gain traction (no pun intended), and effectively put one over on those who may take sports, and the business of sports, more than a bit too seriously. The business of sports and its billions of dollars are not a joke most of the year…but for one day, congrats to these two groups for having some fun and gaining some attention for their creativity.
I don’t see the big deal behind the prank. It’s not even original. Golden Palace paid many people to change their name, name their babies and to tattoo the web address on a prominent position of their body. Their’s wasn’t even a hoax – it was what they are really doing. Having seen that makes this seem like a knock off idea. At the very least, I can say that it has no shock value.