Nashville Superspeedway is a motor racing complex located in Gladeville, Tennessee (though the track has a Lebanon address), United States, about 30 miles (48 km) 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.
It is a concrete oval track 11⁄3 miles (2.145 km) long. Nashville Superspeedway is owned Dover Motorsports Incorporated, which also owns Dover International Speedway. Nashville Superspeedway was the longest concrete oval in NASCAR during the time it was on the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series circuits. Current permanent seating capacity is approximately 50,000.[1] Additional portable seats are brought in for some events, and seating capacity can be expanded to 150,000.[2] Infrastructure is in place to expand the facility to include a short track, drag strip, and road course.
At its peak, the facility hosted four major races each year: two NASCAR Nationwide Series races and two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races (one per year prior to 2010). 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" (a track of one mile (1.6 km) or longer, compared to a short track), and is named to differentiate itself from the .596 mile Fairgrounds Speedway at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds near downtown Nashville. Until 1984, the 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.
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 may be up for sale.[3] The track remains available for private use, such as car & tire testing.[4]
The track is also available, and has been used, as a filming location for various television and film projects. Since 2012, Nashville Superspeedway has been used for testing by NASCAR teams. As of 2014, there are no plans to bring any races back to the track.[5]
On May 29, 2014, it was announced that NeXovation, Inc. (http://www.nexovation.com) would be purchasing the racetrack and all assets and equipment from Dover Motorsports for $27 million.[6] However, the deal never materialized and Dover Motorsports reopened the sale of the track on July 28, 2015. NeXovation had invested $2.9 million (mostly nonrefundable) into the track, mostly in deadline extensions, and Dover pulled out of the sale after another deadline was missed and no payment was received.[7]
Records
- NASCAR Nationwide Series Qualifying: David Stremme, 28.811 sec. (166.561) mph, 2007
- NASCAR Nationwide Series Race: Carl Edwards, 2 hrs. 18 min. 28 sec. (129.949 mph), June 9, 2007
- NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Qualifying: Erik Darnell, 29.601 sec. (162.116 mph), 2006
- NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race: Scott Riggs, 1 hr. 30 min. 34 sec. (132.466 mph), August 10, 2001
- IRL Qualifying: Scott Dixon, 206.211 mph (331.864 km/h), July 18, 2003
- IRL Race: Buddy Lazier, 144.809 mph (233.047 km/h), July 21, 2001
Feature Race Winners
NASCAR Nationwide Series
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Indy Racing League IndyCar Series
- 2007 Race postponed from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon due to rain
- 2008 Race shortened to 171 laps due to rain
See also
References
- ↑ Welcome to Nashville Superspeedway
- ↑ Welcome to Nashville Superspeedway
- ↑ http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dover-motorsports-inc-declines-2012-nascar-sanctions-for-nashville-superspeedway-2011-08-03?reflink=MW_news_stmp
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Kreager/status/149929423511097344
- ↑ Rickard, Caitlin (February 22, 2014). "Superspeedway still idling". Lebanon Democrat. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
- ↑ "Agreement reached to sell Nashville Superspeedway". WKRN-TV. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
- ↑ Humbles, Andy (July 31, 2015). "Nashville Superspeedway sale reopened". The Tennessean. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
External links
Coordinates: 36°02′40″N 86°24′45″W / 36.04442°N 86.41262°W / 36.04442; -86.41262
Buddy Lazier
Gil de Ferran
Dario Franchitti
Scott Dixon