Race Weekend Central

Nashville Superspeedway Hosting Cup Race in 2021

Nashville Superspeedway will reopen in 2021 for NASCAR competition. The announcement came as a result of a report fromĀ The Athletic on Tuesday (June 2), marking the first time any major touring series has raced at the track since 2011.

According to sources, the track will host a NASCAR Cup Series race for the first time in its history. The date will replace one of Dover International Speedway’s two dates. Dover Motorsports Inc. also owns Nashville Superspeedway.

The 1.33-mile track was opened in 2001 and hosted both of NASCAR’s lower series until that final year in 2011, closing as a result of low attendance.

It’s been occasionally used by NASCAR to test but hasn’t held a major race since shuttering. IndyCar also raced there until 2008, as did the ARCA Menards Series.

Several proposals in recent years indicated efforts to return competition to the track, including a deal in 2018 that requested $54 million in bond payments and $2 million in cash from the city of Nashville — a deal that was struck down by then-mayor David Briley.

Last year, Nashville did host the season-ending awards ceremony for NASCAR, and the sport’s executives have publicly said they would support a race held in the Music City.

Carl Edwards and Austin Dillon won the final races at Nashville in 2011 in the Xfinity and Gander RV & Outdoors Truck series races, respectively.

About the author

Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of VCU, he works as a producer and talent for Audacy Richmond's radio stations. In addition to motorsports journalism, Adam also covered and broadcasted numerous VCU athletics for the campus newspaper and radio station during his four years there. He's been a racing fan since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.

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Mike

Put one at the Fairgrounds and weā€™re golden.

JPF

Say itā€™s not so. I went to the first one-have no desire to go again! Now the Fairgrounds, Iā€™d be first in line. Sigh….
Hopefully others are more excited and new owners are successful.

JD in NC

I was excited for about half a second then I realized the headline said superspeedway. The fairgrounds speedway would be awesome, the superspeedway sucks.

janice

they’re released 2021 schedule?

another 1.5 mile track, right?

DoninAjax

It’s 1.33 so technically it is a 1.5 cookie cutter. So 897.6 ft. makes a difference.

DoninAjax

Sorry. It should be “isn’t”.

Bill B

This just shows how the schedule remains beholden by who owns what dates. I was impressed until I read about the track being owned by the same folks who own Dover and that Dover would be losing a race. Until they can rip a race away from a current owner and move it to a track which may produce a better race owner be damned, then the schedule will never truly be free to be the best it can be.

Oh well, at least it will be a change of scenery.

Bill B

I should have added that the same will be true as long as the France family are both track owners and the sanctioning body. That is one of the biggest conflicts of interest I’ve ever seen and the sport will always have one arm tied behind it’s back as long as that conflict exists.

Duane Troutman

You are correct Bill B. Quite a conflict of interest with the France family owning the sanctioning body and the tracks.
But somehow when the former owners of the Kentucky Speedway filed a lawsuit and the judge said he didn’t see a conflict. Funny how he came to that verdict when us common people have no trouble seeing it. I wonder how big his bank account got.

iceman202290

Bill they are still under contract this year, so they can’t just take a race away from any owner. Until that contract is up they are tied. Wouldn’t be surprised if there is something in it for Dover Motorsports to make this change like “hey, if this is a success we could add it to the schedule next year”.

No earth shattering changes can be made until next year.

Bill B

Wanna bet that no track owner will lose a race date next year either? There will be no race awarded to a track owner that doesn’t already own a race date (unless there is a large exchange of money changing hands and they buy the date). Otherwise there will be a lawsuit for conflict of interest.

iceman202290

We will see. They say they are listening so itll be put up or shut up over the next few years. I saw something that NASCAR may be leaning toward 1 year contract deals with tracks. We will see. You know I like to remain positive with the next gen car and schedule.

I do agree with the conflict of interest, something should be done regarding that.

DoninAjax

It seems the “brain trust” (a very loose interpretation) in Daytona refuses to replace a cookie cutter event with a short track race and improve “the product”. But they’ll say it’s what the fans want.

Bill B

Do any of the owners of current cup race tracks own a short track that could replace one of their current 1.5 mile races? If not, or if they do but it would require a major investment then there’s your answer. If there is cup race ready short track available that is owned by someone that doesn’t already have a cup race then it can’t even be discussed.

Mike

Yes. SMI scalawags still own North Wilkesboro.

iceman202290

Have you seen that track lately? That would be a major investment and in no way would be ready to host a race this year.

DoninAjax

In keeping with the Nashville theme, if Blake Lively married Blake Shelton she’d be Blake Shelton.

iceman202290

How is this a superspeedway? 1.33 miles with 15Ā° banking? Sounds more like a speedway or intermediate track. So many negative comments, thats a shame. Happy to see another circuit added. I dont care who owns the track, just rather see more variety. I also think the fact that cup cars have tested here before played a role in the selection.

iceman202290

I will also add. Please run the low downforce package here!

Steve

I think the big issue is that the Cup schedule if full of these tracks on the schedule. So we go from a relatively different track in Dover, to pretty much another cookie cutter. It shows the Nascar brass just doesn’t get it.

The fans have been clamoring forever for more short tracks, yet the schedule constantly stays stagnant with the same boring tracks, all owned by the same groups. You can figure out pretty quickly why the schedule never changes.

iceman202290

I get it, but they cant do much this year due to contracts with tracks. I am not sure I would call this a cookie cutter track though. It is under a mile and half and not quit banked like the mile and halves. Then you add in the concrete surface. Kind of a unique track that could bring on some good racing.

I keep seeing this narrative of fans wanting more short tracks but the TV ratings have been historically better for the cookie cutters. I also would like more short tracks. They typically put on better racing but TV ratings are the vote. My source is Jasyski for track by track TV ratings.

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