FORT WORTH, Texas -- Shorter races and two-day weekends are a big mistake in the eyes of Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage and Charlotte Motor Speedway president Marcus Smith.

"I'm telling you, if this sport does that, it's a huge mistake," Gossage said Saturday at a media lunch gathering before the Samsung Mobile 500. "It's CART. When CART went from looking outside to just dealing with people inside, it imploded on its own weight."

Gossage believes the only people who want to see the changes to shorter races and shorter weekend events are working in the sport.

"It's about the industry," he said. "The sponsor reps, you guys [media], TV reps, NASCAR officials, drivers, team owners, crew members. That's the inward look."

Count me guilty as a member of the media who disagrees with Gossage.

In an era of social networks and Facebook and Twitter, along with cell-phone texting, instant information is everywhere. And attention spans have become shorter than ever before. People get bored quickly and have more electronic options to check out than any other time in history.

The longer the race, the less chance they are going to stick around to the end.

And going to more two-day shows would save the teams an enormous amount of money on expenses over the course of a Cup season that includes 38 weekends of racing.

But Gossage and Smith say their fans don't want things to change.

"Anytime you try to shove something down the throats of the fans, you're going to have problems," Smith said Saturday. "They don't like being put in a box. We need variety to make it special."

And Smith says most races are not significantly longer than other pro sports events.

"If you compare your average football game to your average race, it's only about a 15-minute difference," Smith said. "It isn't a tremendous difference."

Gossage claims the vast majority of TMS fans are opposed to any reductions in racing.

"We conducted a survey and 77 percent of our fans don't want a shorter race or a shorter weekend," Gossage said. "We have fans that want a 601-miler [which would make it the longest NASCAR race] because this is Texas. We wait all year long and you want us to accept less? Why do we want a shorter race?"

But where are the fans on Fridays for a three-day show? Many tracks appear almost empty on Fridays.

Gossage said TMS needs about 15,000 paying customers to break even on the first day of a three-day event.

"This weekend on Thursday [for a Saturday night Cup race], we had 25,000 to 30,000 including all our campers," Gossage said. "I'd qualify on Monday if [NASCAR] would let me."

Cup has the longest season of any major professional sport, starting in early February and ending in late November.

"I understand it's a grind because I did it [as a PR rep years ago],'' Gossage said. "But it doesn't matter if you are tired. Go do something else then."

Gossage always finds one soapbox issue on which to take a stand. This is the big one for him in 2011.

"NASCAR always wants to shorten things up," he said. "Eventually, they just want us send them a check and they don't come."