NASCAR heads back to Nashville, where there are more questions than answers for drivers
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
NASCAR returns this weekend to Nashville Superspeedway, a track that is quite familiar to some and unfamiliar to others.
But in many ways, it will be new for everybody.
The 1.33-mile concrete oval has remained dormant as far as races for 10 years, as owner Dover Motorsports closed it after 11 seasons. The track, located about 35 miles from downtown Nashville near Mt. Juliet, never generated the attendance numbers needed to make it economically viable without a Cup race and the television money that went with it.
Dover never sold the track and with NASCAR having its awards celebration in Nashville in 2019 generating buzz in the community, Dover opted to move one of its Cup weekends from Delaware to Nashville. NASCAR gave Dover a four-year sanction agreement – not a one-year deal as other tracks – so that it would invest into the facility and know it will have at least a few more years to recoup the investment.
Cars did circle the track for miles and miles after 2011. Before NASCAR banned testing in 2015, Nashville was a place where drivers would go so often to test, they eventually got tired of it.
Now those who had laps on it are happy to return. But it’s not like they will use much of that info.
When drivers think of the Nashville track, they probably think of a place that at many times was difficult to pass, which resulted in a wild 2004 finish in the Xfinity Series where the top-four drivers crashed with fewer than two laps to go, handing the win to Michael Waltrip.
There also was the infamous prayer in 2011 (we will have more on that on the FOX Sports website later this week) and the traditional trophy was a guitar painted by artist Sam Bass.
Kyle Busch smashed the Gibson Les Paul guitar in a 2009 celebration that mimicked a rock star, but it rattled some who viewed it as disrespect to Bass. Busch gave bits of the guitar to his crew members and ordered more guitars.
The winner this year will get a Gibson guitar and the track will pay tribute to Bass, who died in 2019.
Who will earn that guitar? Hard to know, and it could be a matter of survival, especially in the truck race on Friday and Xfinity race on Saturday. NASCAR has conducted two tire tests, settling on its Charlotte and Kansas tire for the left sides and its Dover (a 1-mile concrete track) tire for the right sides, which are expected to take a beating.
With the track not having been used for several years, tire wear was considerable in the first test. NASCAR applied a resin, not as a traction compound but to help the track take rubber, which should help with tire wear.
Drivers have driven the track on simulators to prepare, but they also have memories of tests in a Cup car.
"I just remember going there, testing, and just trying things," said Austin Dillon, who raced at the track in truck and Xfinity. "We didn’t get to race there [in Cup], but it was cool just to go through and kind of get ready for a practice session.
"But it was also like a team-building, fun time because after the test, I think we went out in downtown Nashville and had a really good time. The next day was not as productive as the first day."
Many of those tests came during the offseason and early parts of the year, so Ricky Stenhouse Jr. noted that the temperatures could be much different than what he remembers.
"A lot of the testing that we did in the wintertime – it was really cold there," Stenhouse said. "So, obviously now, it’ll be really hot, slick and a lot of fun.
"There’s a lot of things that I think I remember, but also a lot of things I feel like I don’t remember – what exactly it feels like driving the car around a concrete race track that big and is also kind of that flat. There will be a lot of things to pick up on in that 50-minute practice that we have."
Dillon said he expects the surface to be a little different but the way a driver approaches racing it could be similar.
"What I enjoyed about Nashville is people fought for that bottom line and you really had to be disciplined and not miss your exit leaving the corner at Nashville," Dillon said. "The car that rotated the most was pretty good.
"I’m looking forward to it. It was a good track for us in the past. I did get to test there a long time ago. We’ll look at some of the notes."
There is so much different about the track and NASCAR in general, that it is hard to know how much those notes will help. There were no double-file restarts and no choose rule at those events.
"As far as notes for set-up and stuff, all that stuff is way beyond what it used to be many years ago," said Kurt Busch crew chief Matt McCall, who raced an Xfinity car there in 2006 as a driver.
Chase Briscoe, who did the tire tests, said he had trouble finding video of past races to even watch and prepare. But he felt the video he was able to view should help.
"From a race-track standpoint, it looked the same as it did on videos and kind of how it raced was similar to how it was in single-car stuff, so I think it was pretty similar," Briscoe said. "Obviously, I don’t know because I didn’t run it back then, but from what I saw to what I experienced I felt like it was relatively the same race track."
When it announced moving a race weekend to Nashville last year, Dover had a $10 million plan for renovations. Not everything will be complete for this race – there is still some SAFER Barrier that will be added over the next year – but there have been several changes.
The track also worked on repaving the apron and upgrading the lights. It updated the broadcast booths, race control booths, concession stands and bathrooms.
The track has added about 15,000 temporary grandstands for about 38,000 seats, all of which are sold for the Cup race. So this should be a much more raucous atmosphere than it had for many of its previous events.
For those going, they should keep an open mind. While teams might try to look at trends from races 10-20 years ago, the 50-minute practice session on Saturday likely will be more telling than what happens Sunday.
"The history of the race track is very important to the people competing," said former Cup crew chief Steve Letarte, an analyst for NBC Sports. "I don’t believe the history of the race track is fair in any way to have any idea what we may or may not see."
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Thinking Out Loud
NASCAR used a traction compound at Texas Motor Speedway and it had mixed results, as it never really came in like they had hoped during the race weekend.
With teams always developing their cars, maybe NASCAR should experiment at a couple of tracks – like Texas in the fall – where it doesn’t add any additional traction compound for the race weekend.
What is there is there, but let’s just see how different the racing is without it. Some might say NASCAR should already know, but the argument would be it has been a few years and the cars have changed aero packages, so let’s, for a race or two, go without and see if things have improved.
Altering the race track isn’t the greatest thing, but if it creates another lane, then that’s a positive. It appears to have helped Phoenix Raceway and the competition there. But it’s not the answer everywhere, and with the new car coming in 2022, it wouldn’t be bad to see what happens without it. Sure, NASCAR could risk having a dud of a race, but at least there would be some data and a reminder to fans of why NASCAR feels it is necessary.
Social Spotlight
Corey LaJoie dropped off a flag at this person’s house because he was tired of seeing an old Harvick flag flying daily he drove by to go to work.
They Said It
"Our competition is certainly not taking their foot off the gas, so we're going to keep ours on it, too." – Kyle Larson crew chief Cliff Daniels
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!
