With a NASCAR Cup Series race firmly in place, Nashville Superspeedway is in more stable condition in its second tenure than when it opened in 2001.
In the late 1990s, when word got out that Dover Motorsports was building a racetrack in Lebanon, there was anticipation that NASCAR Cup Series racing would return to the area for the first time in more than 15 years.
But that didn’t happen.
When ground broke on the 1.33-mile oval track on Aug. 26, 1999, developers said they were prepared to double or even triple the original 50,000-seat capacity to accommodate a Cup race.
Nashville attorney Gary Baker, former owner of Bristol Motor Speedway and Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, went so far as to say at the time that Nashville Superspeedway had the potential to draw larger crowds than Bristol, which typically drew 140,000 fans.
The track’s first run lasted 10 years and the Cup Series never returned during that time.
Nashville deserved NASCAR and NASCAR deserved Nashville
Baker was convinced that Nashville needed a racetrack long before the Nashville Superspeedway was built. In fact, he planned to build a venue similar to the Nashville Superspeedway in the 1980s.
His lease with Warner Hodgdon at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, which at the time hosted two annual Cup races, was about to expire, and Baker wanted to take advantage of the growing NASCAR market.
He bought some land in Williamson County, chartered a plane and flew several community leaders to Charlotte, North Carolina, to see what he had in mind.
“I wanted to build a racetrack in Nashville that would seat 150,000 to 200,000 people,” Baker said. “We would have put that many people in the stands. This is Nashville, and when you have John Cash and Waylon Jennings doing the pre- or post-race, then yes, they would have come from all over the world. It was time and I was ready to do it.”
Baker said Hodgdon disagreed. Hodgdon, a California real estate developer who died in 2013, instead wanted to expand the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in a similar way to the expansion of Richmond Raceway in the 1980s.
“I said that wouldn’t work,” Baker said. “The fairgrounds facilities were too small and had horrible access and egress. Let’s buy land somewhere and build a high-speed racetrack.”
The engineering plans for the racetrack Baker hoped to build were where the Primus Financial Services complex in Cool Springs now stands.
“It was ready to go, but when Warner (Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway) went bankrupt, it became risky,” Baker said. “NASCAR had to cancel the Cup date because they were afraid a bankruptcy court might put the track in the hands of whoever they wanted. And just like that, NASCAR was gone.”
On March 5, 1985, a legal notice was filed in The Tennessean regarding the bankruptcy of Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
Baker never stopped believing that NASCAR Cup racing belonged in Nashville. In fact, Baker took back control of the bankrupt facility when it was put up for auction on March 15, 1985, in hopes of luring the Cup Series back to the city.
“All the drivers and people from NASCAR loved coming to Nashville,” Baker said. “It was one of their favorite stops on the entire circuit. So, yeah, Nashville deserved NASCAR and NASCAR deserved Nashville.”
Nashville Superspeedway was doomed without NASCAR Cup races
NASCAR was booming when the $125 million Nashville Superspeedway opened on April 13, 2001. Television ratings had reached an all-time high in the 1990s and sold-out crowds were the norm at most tracks.
Nashville Superspeedway was just missing a NASCAR Cup Series race to join the party, but that didn’t happen.
NASCAR officials said at the time that they were interested in new markets, which was an indication that the Southeast would be left out.
Larry Woody, the veteran NASCAR sportswriter from Tennessee who covered NASCAR Cup races at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway for many years, was never convinced that Nashville Superspeedway would have a Cup race.
At the time, Dover Motorsports had two Cup races and many, including Woody, believed the best chance for Nashville Superspeedway to have a Cup race was for one of them to be moved there.
However, from a financial standpoint, it didn’t seem to make sense for the company.
“I thought the only possibility would be for Dover to move one of their races here and they kept saying they wouldn’t do it because they ran two (Cup races) a year and they got fans at the track and Dover also owned Dover Entertainment, which is a gambling casino across the street,” Woody said. “So they’d actually be giving up four big crowds if they moved a Cup race from there. I said, ‘Well, if Dover doesn’t bring a race here, I don’t think NASCAR is going to give them one.'”
Nashville Superspeedway hosted numerous races between 2001 and 2011, including the NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Series along with IndyCar, but there was never any indication that a Cup Series race would come to the track.
Nashville Superspeedway to host NASCAR Cup Series race upon reopening
In 2019, there was again talk of NASCAR Cup Series racing returning to Nashville, but not at Nashville Superspeedway.
Speedway Motorsports was interested in leasing Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in hopes of bringing Cup racing in some form to the historic track.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chase Elliott and Clint Bowyer were among the NASCAR figures who strongly supported the Cup Series’ return to Music City.
That’s why it came as a big surprise when Dover Motorsports officials announced on June 3, 2020 that they would reopen Nashville Superspeedway and eventually move one of their Cup Series races there.
This wasn’t what Elliott and some of the other drivers who wanted Cup to return to the Nashville Fairgrounds had in mind. Nashville Superspeedway, which has a cement track, had a reputation for lacking side-by-side racing that drivers didn’t like. Elliott tweeted: “A nap at that location will put a nail in the coffin for the Fairgrounds, what a bummer.”
Elliott changed his mind two years later when he won the second annual Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. The race, which included plenty of sideline action, was cut short by an extended weather delay and finished under the lights.
The NASCAR Cup Series race took Nashville Superspeedway into a higher gear
Two of the first three races of the Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series were sold out. The race gained even more momentum in 2021 when SMI purchased Dover Motorsports.
In addition to Dover Motor Speedway, SMI owns Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway.
“There were a number of things that led to the NASCAR Cup Series coming to Nashville Superspeedway,” Bristol Motor Speedway President Jerry Caldwell said. “It was a great time for us as a sport to say, ‘What’s the right thing to do? Not what we’ve been doing, but what are the right next steps to take? How do we continue to grow this sport, how do we continue to find those markets that are really hungry for more motorsports?’ And this was a natural fit.”
Caldwell said the success of the Ally 400 was further proof to SMI that Cup racing would once again be a success at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway as well.
“The economy is very strong around here, there was a desire locally and statewide to get this track up and running and come back to life,” Caldwell said. “And then there was a huge desire from fans to say, ‘We love that market and it makes a lot of sense.'”
What is the future of the NASCAR Cup Series at Nashville Superspeedway?
The vision many had of the potential of Nashville Superspeedway in the 1990s was finally realized with the success the Ally 400 experienced during its first three years.
“The Nashville NASCAR Cup date was canceled in the 1980s and it didn’t come back very soon,” Baker said. “At that time, NASCAR was at a very high level and right now, NASCAR needs to get back to some of its roots that made it the incredible, top-tier sport that it is. That’s what they did by coming to Nashville Superspeedway.”
Ally Financial became the title sponsor of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway in its inaugural year (2021). That deal expires this year.
According to Matt Greci, senior vice president and general manager of Nashville Superspeedway, new deals are being negotiated with Ally Financial and other potential sponsors. All indications are that the Cup Series will return in 2025.
“We continue to see positive momentum across the sport and the industry,” Greci said. “We’re happy with where things are right now. We’re excited about the future. Nashville is important to (SMI) as a company and it’s important to NASCAR.”
The strong attendance at the Ally 400 is supported by the fact that the number of campsites at the track increased by 10% this year compared to last year’s sell-out.
“The market continues to grow and NASCAR is entertainment,” Greci said. “I would say Nashville is the entertainment center of the country, if not the world. So for (SMI) to have a stake here in motorsports and for NASCAR to be at Nashville Superspeedway is very important because of the entertainment value. People are going to come to Nashville and we want to have the opportunity to entertain them here.”
Contact Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or X @MikeOrganWriter.
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