Challenges Continue to Mount for Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Revival

What’s Happening?

The Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway is facing more opposition in its plans to return to racing, per a new report.

• The Restore Our Fairgrounds group, which opposes the long-rumored remodeling of the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, has filed a petition with the Nashville Charter Revision Commission. Per a report from Kelsey Gibbs of WTVF Nashville, this petition, if passed, will remove a mandate allowing racing at the property.
• Restore Our Fairgrounds is not new to the battle for the future of the historic 0.596-mile oval. Their goal is to find a way to have that area of town reworked into a communal space, such as a green space, retail hub, or housing expansion.
• Nashville’s Charter Revision Commission reviews proposed amendments to the city’s Metropolitan Charter. The petition would need 60,000 signatures to be put on the public ballot during the November 2026 voting period.
• Beyond renderings of a proposed renovation of the track and interest from Speedway Motorsports, which owns Bristol Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway (in Lebanon), there is no clear plan for the track’s future. The track has not hosted a NASCAR Cup Series race since 1984, and a NASCAR National Series race since 2000.
• In a late August report from Stephen Elliott of The Nashville Banner, Metropolitan Board of Fair Commissioners’ Jasper Hendricks claimed the board was nearing the announcement of a deal with SMI to bring NASCAR back to the Fairgrounds. However, no such deal has been announced.

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