What’s Happening?

Lurking in the background of any NASCAR schedule rumor is the state of racing at the Nashville Fairgrounds. For those interested in the state of racing at the Nashville Fairgrounds, be sure to bookmark his page as we keep tabs on everything going on at the Fairgrounds.

• The Nashville Fairgrounds is a historic NASCAR venue. The Cup Series held races there every year from 1958 until 1984. The series still maintains a presence in Nashville with a race at nearby (sort of) Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tennessee.
• Over the past few years, an effort has been made to revitalize the Fairgrounds in hopes of bringing back the NASCAR Cup Series. Unfortunately, numerous political stumbling blocks have kept the track from putting a shovel in the ground.
• Fans are always looking for recent information on the Nashville Fairgrounds. However, the track still struggles to gain much traction.

2023

In July of 2023, the Nashville Fairgrounds released new renderings of the renovations they hope to make to the track. This includes sound walls to mitigate the noise coming from the track. However, the proposal got past the fair board, it was stuck in the mud of the Metro Council.

Is There Any REAL Movement At the Nashville Fairgrounds?

The week after the proposal became public, proponents of the track hosted a public rally for the proposal before a community meeting about the proposal. Notable attendees included Marcus Smith and Kurt Busch.

What Was Going On at the Nashville Fairgrounds This Week?

However, the proposal never got through the political hoops it needed to in 2023. The proposal made some progress in November, when The Tennessean reported “Legislation to approve a deal to overhaul the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway was filed with the Metro Council Office.” However, this was only step one of a very long process, and the track was unable to push the proposal through in 2023.

Nashville Fairgrounds Inches Towards Renovation, but the Future is Still Murky

Later in November, a radical proposal was put forth by the little-known Cumberland Yard to bulldoze the race track and turn it into an electric car racing drag strip. Whether or not the public supports the project is uncertain, but, the NASCAR community certainly is now in favor.

Why Is the Newest Nashville Fairgrounds Proposal So Controversial?

2024

Those supporting renovating the race track took a minor victory on March 26th when Adam Friedman reported that Governor Bill Lee will keep $17 million set aside to renovate the Fairgrounds. Long story short, the funding for the project is still there.

Gov. Bill Lee released his supplement budget. He's keeping in the $17M the state earmarked in 2022 to renovate the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.

The Speedway deal has been on ice since a failed attempt to push it through at the end of the 2023 Metro Nashville Council term.

— Adam Friedman (@friedmanadam5) March 26, 2024

Proponents of removing the Fairgrounds had a minor victory in early March. According to Nicolle, S. Praino of Nashville Post, Neighbors Opposing Track Expansion (NOTE) signed a petition to replace the track with affordable housing that was approved by the Metro Charter Revision Commission.

According to Praino, the goal is for the NOTE to get 10% of county voters to sign the petition. They can start garnering signatures once a 30-day appeal period has expired. Once that has expired, the NOTE has 90 days to get the signatures to put the proposal on the ballot.

We will keep this article updated as more news comes out on the Fairgrounds.