Nashville Superspeedway


Nashville Superspeedway is a motor racing complex located in Gladeville, Tennessee, United States, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville. The track was built in 2001 and is currently closed to all competitive events, but has been used for driving schools and GT Academy, a reality television competition. The facility is slated to reopen for NASCAR Cup competition in June 2021.
It is a concrete oval track 1 miles long. Nashville Superspeedway is owned by Dover Motorsports, Inc., which also owns Dover International Speedway. Nashville Superspeedway was the longest concrete oval in NASCAR during the time it was on the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series circuits. Current permanent seating capacity is approximately 50,000. Additional portable seats are brought in for some events, and seating capacity can be expanded to 150,000. Infrastructure is in place to expand the facility to include a short track, drag strip, and road course.

History

At its peak, the facility hosted four major races each year: two NASCAR Xfinity Series races and two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races. The IndyCar Series Firestone Indy 200 was run at the track from its opening until 2008. Each feature event was usually accompanied by a companion event from lower-tier series such as ARCA and Indy Lights. NASCAR continually showed little interest in staging a Sprint Cup Series race at the track.
In October 2009, Dover Motorsports decided to close Memphis Motorsports Park, and the Memphis Truck race originally scheduled for late June 2010 was moved to Nashville Superspeedway on April 2, one day prior to the annual Nationwide Series race at the track. The April Truck race was known as the "Nashville 200". Nashville Superspeedway became the only facility on the circuit to host two Truck Series races without hosting a NASCAR Cup event.
As is a Nashville metropolitan tradition, specially-designed Gibson Les Paul guitars are presented to race winners in place of conventional trophies. The track also has a reputation for producing many first-time winners.
The track is referred by the classic term of a "superspeedway", and is named to differentiate itself from the.596 mile Fairgrounds Speedway at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds near downtown Nashville. Until 1984, Nashville Speedway USA had conducted a pair of 420-lap Cup races, but NASCAR pulled its sanctioning license from the circuit after disputes over who would manage the track took place prior to the start of the 1985 season.

Closure

Following sluggish attendance for major events and no prospects of gaining a Sprint Cup event, Dover Motorsports announced that the track would not seek NASCAR sanctions in 2012, effectively shutting it down, on August 3, 2011. In the announcement, Dover also hinted that the track was up for sale. The track remained available for private use, such as car and tire testing.
The track also remained available, and has been used, as a filming location for various television and film projects. Starting in 2012, Nashville Superspeedway was used for testing by NASCAR teams.

Attempted sale

On May 29, 2014, it was announced that NeXovation, Inc. would be purchasing the racetrack and all assets and equipment from Dover Motorsports for $27 million. However, the deal never materialized and Dover Motorsports reopened the sale of the track on July 28, 2015. NeXovation had invested $2.9 million into the track, mostly in deadline extensions, and Dover pulled out of the sale after another deadline was missed and no payment was received. The deal with NeXovation was ultimately canceled, though the company lost approximately $2.9 million dollars in earnest money.
On August 25, 2016, Dover announced it had reached an agreement to sell the property to Panattoni Development Company in a $44.7 million deal. Panattoni planned to convert the site into a distribution and logistics park, the primary usage of commercial real estate in the area. Later the deal fell through.

Reopening

On June 2, 2020, reports began to surface that Nashville Superspeedway would reopen in 2021 and would host a NASCAR Cup Series race, with a tentative date of Sunday, June 20. The race would replace one of the two races the series runs at Dover International Speedway, which is also owned by Dover Motorsports. On June 3, NASCAR confirmed that the track will reopen to host a Cup race in 2021, replacing one of the two Dover dates.

Records

NASCAR Xfinity Series

SeasonRace NameMonthWinning DriverManufacturer
2001Pepsi 300AprilGreg BiffleFord
2002Pepsi 300AprilScott RiggsFord
2002Inside Traxx 300JuneJack SpragueChevrolet
2003Pepsi 300AprilDavid GreenPontiac
2003Trace Adkins Chrome 300JuneScott RiggsFord
2004Pepsi 300AprilMichael WaltripChevrolet
2004Federated Auto Parts 300JuneJason LefflerChevrolet
2005Pepsi 300MarchReed SorensonDodge
2005Federated Auto Parts 300JuneClint BowyerChevrolet
2006Pepsi 300AprilKevin HarvickChevrolet
2006Federated Auto Parts 300JuneCarl EdwardsFord
2007Pepsi 300AprilCarl EdwardsFord
2007Federated Auto Parts 300JuneCarl EdwardsFord
2008Pepsi 300MarchScott WimmerChevy
2008Federated Auto Parts 300JuneBrad KeselowskiChevy
2009Pepsi 300AprilJoey LoganoToyota
2009Federated Auto Parts 300JuneKyle BuschToyota
2010Nashville 300AprilKevin HarvickChevrolet
2010Federated Auto Parts 300JuneBrad KeselowskiDodge
2011Nashville 300AprilCarl EdwardsFord
2011Federated Auto Parts 300JulyCarl EdwardsFord

NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series

IndyCar Series