Plan in the works to return Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway to NASCAR circuit
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As NASCAR celebrated its 2021 champions last week in Nashville, some additional NASCAR buzz flowed through the city on what the future holds for Cup racing in the area.
Speedway Motorsports, owner of Bristol Motor Speedway and several other tracks, announced Nov. 30 that it had reached an agreement in principle with Nashville Mayor John Cooper on a deal to renovate and operate the historic Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
The announcement had people wondering whether a Cup race could get to the historic 0.596-mile track by 2023.
Not so fast.
It has taken four years to get to this point, and it likely will take until 2024 or later for a Cup race at a facility where NASCAR Cup drivers last raced in 1984.
The announcement Tuesday appeared designed to boost public support for the Speedway Motorsports plan, in which the idea is not to use dollars from the general fund but instead have 30-year revenue bonds finance the renovation, paid off by rent payments, user fees/taxes on tickets, sponsorship agreements and event revenue.
"This was a big next step in the process," said Bristol general manager Jerry Caldwell, the Speedway Motorsports point man on the Nashville project.
"We’ve spent a lot of time with the Cooper administration working on a deal that would be good for everyone."
That announcement had reporters asking drivers about the possibility of racing at the Fairgrounds as if it were going to happen.
"The Fairgrounds has a huge part of our history," former Cup champion Kevin Harvick said. "I’m excited. It’s great to have the Fairgrounds back in the conversation."
Now the challenge is to push the conversation into reality to sell the financing plan to the public and the local leaders who must approve the deal.
Costs could be $100 million or more — the track has been in operation since 1904 and is in need of extensive work to bring it to NASCAR national series standards — with the exact financials likely to be released soon.
The financial agreement is being vetted by a consultant, and pending the consultant’s approval, The Nashville Board of Fair Commissioners must approve the deal. Even before then, the Metro Council must fill the two current openings on the five-member board.
The earliest those positions could be filled would be at the Dec. 21 Metro Council meeting. Any proposal won’t go to the fair board until early in 2022.
The fair board would then have at least one public comment period and could suggest changes to the agreement, which would have Speedway Motorsports operate the facility for 30 years. Then the Metro Council and sports authority would have to approve it.
Financing concerns and quality of life — including sound and parking for the events with nearby schools and neighborhoods — have been the main issues debated the past several months, as Bristol has appeared before the fair board to give updates on the progress of talks with community groups.
If the deal passes, it could take another 18 months for the renovations, which include resurfacing the entire track and rebuilding the grandstands to seat 30,000.
The adjacent soccer stadium on the fair property is scheduled to open in May 2022, but any additional construction or infrastructure needs could delay the project, and Caldwell said Speedway Motorsports’ goal is to have as little impact on the current racing schedule and plans as possible.
Finally, where would a Cup date come from? Speedway Motorsports agreed last month to pay $135.5 million to buy Dover Motorsports, which owns Dover Speedway as well as Nashville Superspeedway, a 1.33-mile concrete oval about 35 miles from the city. The purchase should close in the next few weeks.
Neither Nashville facility would have more than 40,000 seats, and the fact they are two very different tracks gives credence to the idea that there could be two Cup races in Nashville.
"We’ve said this market can hold two races," Caldwell said. "You look at the other markets around the country that have two or three races — Nashville, the destination it has become and the hot city in the country — it certainly has the capacity to handle two weekends."
NASCAR has a four-year deal through 2024 to race Cup at Nashville Superspeedway, though as the track operator, Speedway Motorsports likely could end that deal early if it wanted.
Speedway Motorsports controls 15 Cup dates. It owns Atlanta (two Cup dates), Bristol (two), Charlotte (two), Dover (one), Las Vegas (two), Nashville (one), New Hampshire (one), Sonoma (one), Texas (two, including all-star) and the lease to have a Cup race at Circuit of the Americas. The company, owned by Bruton Smith and his family, also is looking into revitalizing North Wilkesboro (North Carolina) Speedway, which it owns.
Some in the industry speculate that maybe the company would close Dover or New Hampshire, but NASCAR has already cut three races (a Pocono race, a Dover race and a New Hampshire race) from its schedule in recent years. Sonoma is a road course in the beautiful Napa Valley, but is the land worth more to sell?
Can Speedway Motorsports take a race from Atlanta, where it is trying to get approval for an entertainment complex and casino, or one of its Texas events, where certain tax incentives make having three races financially beneficial?
Those are questions that still need to be answered, though not immediately. The immediate focus needs to be convincing the fair board and council members that this financial package is the best one. With the racetrack’s existence to operate approved by voters several years ago, Speedway Motorsports is positioning its bid as offering the best plan to get the aging speedway to current NASCAR standards.
"In keeping with the national profile that Nashville Soccer Club is bringing to the Fairgrounds in 2022, this innovative partnership will bring our historic speedway back to life as a crown jewel in the world of motorsports," Cooper said in a statement.
That renaissance idea is what Speedway Motorsports is hoping will get the deal done.
"We’ve been able to stay the course because you so clearly see the path for it to make so much sense," Caldwell said. "Look at Wrigley Field or Lambeau Field or Augusta National, ... I have struggled to think of one that has fallen into disrepair and then been able to be resurrected in a proper way.
"That’s what you would see here. That’s a great story for our sport and a great story for this city."
Drivers are already offering suggestions. Here's one from Kyle Busch:
"In my opinion, if we are going to race the Fairgrounds, they need to pave the track as soon as they possibly can," he said. "They need to do it now, so it has time to age before we get on the calendar to get out here.
"If you repave a racetrack and you don’t put on a good show, you put a bad taste in people’s mouths."
Thinking out loud
The biggest challenge for Petty GMS Motorsports will be the marriage of the Petty style and the GMS style.
The Pettys have been about tradition. GMS has been about trying new avenues, sometimes successful (two truck titles) and sometimes not so much (one year of frustration in the Xfinity Series).
Team owner Maury Gallagher, who bought the assets of Richard Petty Motorsports in buying out primary shareholder Medallion Financial (run by Andy Murstein), hopes he can build a fan base and generate sponsorship with the Petty name. But in the past 13 years, partners George Gillett and Murstein were not able to capitalize on the Petty name to any degree of sustained success.
What makes GMS different? Gallagher has raced for a decade in other series, and the hope is that knowledge base of how to build a winning organization will provide a footprint — and understanding of how much patience that requires.
Competitors and successful businessmen, though, are not known for patience. Time will tell.
Next Up: Next Gen
The Charlotte oval test scheduled for Friday, with one car from each manufacturer, was pushed to Thursday (today) because of the threat of rain for Friday.
The test was intended to determine what changes NASCAR will want teams to try at the test next week (Wednesday and Friday) at Charlotte.
Social spotlight
They said it
"I underrated his talent. I worked with him at the Charlotte test, and he’s good. He’s great. He’s not good. He’s great." — Denny Hamlin on adding Kurt Busch to 23XI Racing
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!
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