IndyCar's CEO has talked to Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage about staging a special Izod IndyCar Series race at the Fort Worth track if professional football doesn't have a resolution. Gossage is all ears.

"I told him, lay it on us, tell us more about it," Gossage said Thursday.

Neither man is ready to commit just yet, and Bernard said it might be mid-summer before a decision to move forward is made. But there have been exploratory conversations with television executives. Versus would have the right of first refusal.

"It's all pie in the sky at this point, but I'm a firm believer that when one door closes on someone another one opens for someone else," Bernard said. "We're ready to do anything and everything we can do to reach more mainstream, and I know the press will be hungry for more to cover if they're not covering football.

"(Gossage) is aggressive and likes to try these kinds of things."

A possible Monday night race was one of several topics Bernard addressed on the eve of IndyCar's opening weekend in St. Petersburg, Fla.  Indy Star