Nashville Superspeedway

Nashville Superspeedway
Location 4847-F McCreary Road
Lebanon, TN 37090
Capacity 50,000
Owner Dover Motorsports Incorporated
Opened 2001
Closed 2011 (remains available for private use)
Major events NASCAR Nationwide Series, Camping World Truck Series, IRL IndyCar Series, IRL Firestone Indy Lights, ARCA RE/MAX Series
Tri-oval
Surface Concrete
Length 1.333 mi (2.145 km)
Turns 4
Banking 14°
Lap record 0:23.271 (Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, 2003, IRL IndyCar Series)

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 1 1⁄3 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.

History

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 (previously known as Nashville Speedway USA) at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds near downtown Nashville. Until 1984, 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.

Records

Feature Race Winners

NASCAR Nationwide Series

Season Race Name Month Winning Driver Manufacturer
2001 Pepsi 300 April Greg Biffle Ford
2002 Pepsi 300 April Scott Riggs Ford
2002 Inside Traxx 300 June Jack Sprague Chevrolet
2003 Pepsi 300 April David Green Pontiac
2003 Trace Adkins Chrome 300 June Scott Riggs Ford
2004 Pepsi 300 April Michael Waltrip Chevrolet
2004 Federated Auto Parts 300 June Jason Leffler Chevrolet
2005 Pepsi 300 March Reed Sorenson Dodge
2005 Federated Auto Parts 300 June Clint Bowyer Chevrolet
2006 Pepsi 300 April Kevin Harvick Chevrolet
2006 Federated Auto Parts 300 June Carl Edwards Ford
2007 Pepsi 300 April Carl Edwards Ford
2007 Federated Auto Parts 300 June Carl Edwards Ford
2008 Pepsi 300 March Scott Wimmer Chevy
2008 Federated Auto Parts 300 June Brad Keselowski Chevy
2009 Pepsi 300 April Joey Logano Toyota
2009 Federated Auto Parts 300 June Kyle Busch Toyota
2010 Nashville 300 April Kevin Harvick Chevy
2010 Federated Auto Parts 300 June Brad Keselowski Dodge
2011 Nashville 300 April Carl Edwards Ford
2011 Federated Auto Parts 300 July Carl Edwards Ford

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

Season Race Name Winning Driver Manufacturer
2001 Federated Auto Parts 200 Scott Riggs Dodge
2002 Federated Auto Parts 200 Mike Bliss Chevrolet
2003 Federated Auto Parts 200 Carl Edwards Ford
2004 Toyota Tundra 200 Bobby Hamilton Dodge
2005 Toyota Tundra 200 David Reutimann Toyota
2006 Toyota Tundra 200 Johnny Benson Toyota
2007 Toyota Tundra 200 Travis Kvapil Ford
2008 Toyota Tundra 200 Johnny Benson Toyota
2009 Toyota Tundra 200 Ron Hornaday Chevrolet
2010 Nashville 200 Kyle Busch Toyota
2010 Toyota Tundra 200 Todd Bodine Toyota
2011 Bully Hill Vineyards 200 Kyle Busch Toyota
2011 Deep Clean 200 Austin Dillon Chevrolet

Indy Racing League IndyCar Series

IRL IndyCar Series history
Season Date Winning Driver Chassis Engine Team
2001 July 21 United States Buddy Lazier Dallara Oldsmobile Hemelgarn Racing
2002 July 20 United States Alex Barron Dallara Chevrolet Blair Racing
2003 July 19 Brazil Gil de Ferran Dallara Toyota Team Penske
2004 July 17 Brazil Tony Kanaan Dallara Honda Andretti Green Racing
2005 July 16 United Kingdom Dario Franchitti Dallara Honda Andretti Green Racing
2006 July 15 New Zealand Scott Dixon Dallara Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
2007 July 15* New Zealand Scott Dixon Dallara Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
2008 July 12* New Zealand Scott Dixon Dallara Honda Chip Ganassi Racing

Closure

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]

Sale

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] The deal with NeXovation was ultimately canceled, though the company lost approximately $2.9 million dollars in earnest money.[8]

On August 25, 2016, Dover announced it had reached an agreement to sell the property to Panattoni Development Company in a $44.7 million deal. Panattoni plans to convert the site into a distribution and logistics park. The racetrack will initially be left standing but not operating. Panattoni is noncommittal about its future as a motorsports venue.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Welcome to Nashville Superspeedway
  2. ↑ Welcome to Nashville Superspeedway
  3. ↑ http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dover-motorsports-inc-declines-2012-nascar-sanctions-for-nashville-superspeedway-2011-08-03?reflink=MW_news_stmp
  4. ↑ https://twitter.com/Kreager/status/149929423511097344
  5. ↑ Rickard, Caitlin (February 22, 2014). "Superspeedway still idling". Lebanon Democrat. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Agreement reached to sell Nashville Superspeedway". WKRN-TV. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  7. ↑ Humbles, Andy (July 31, 2015). "Nashville Superspeedway sale reopened". The Tennessean. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  8. ↑ Ward, Getahn (August 25, 2016). "Nashville Superspeedway to be sold to developer Panattoni". The Tennessean. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  9. ↑ Ward, Getahn (August 26, 2016). "http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/real-estate/2016/08/26/distribution-park-planned-nashville-superspeedway-site/89371262/". The Tennessean. External link in |title= (help);

Coordinates: 36°02′40″N 86°24′45″W / 36.04442°N 86.41262°W / 36.04442; -86.41262

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