Why the NASCAR Cup Series left Nashville and why it could be here to stay

With a NASCAR Cup Series race firmly entrenched, Nashville Superspeedway is in more stable condition in its second tenure than when it opened in 2001.

Back in the late 1990s when word came that Dover Motorsports was building a superspeedway in Lebanon, it came with expectations that NASCAR Cup Series racing would return to the area for the first time in more than 15 years.

But that didn't happen.

When ground was broken for the 1.33-mile oval track on Aug. 26, 1999, developers said they were prepared to double or even triple the original capacity of 50,000 seats to accommodate a Cup race.

Nashville attorney Gary Baker, one-time owner of Bristol Motor Speedway and Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, went as far as to say at the time that Nashville Superspeedway had the potential to draw bigger crowds than Bristol, which routinely drew 140,000 fans.

The track's first go-around lasted 10 years and the Cup Series never came back during that time.

Nashville deserved NASCAR, and NASCAR deserved Nashville

Baker was convinced Nashville needed a superspeedway long before Nashville Superspeedway was built. He actually planned to build a venue similar to Nashville Superspeedway in the 1980s.

His and Warner Hodgdon's lease was expiring with Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, which had two annual Cup races at the time, and Baker wanted to capitalize on the growing NASCAR market.

He purchased land in Williamson County, chartered a plane and took several community leaders to Charlotte, North Carolina, to see what he had in mind.

"I wanted to build a superspeedway in Nashville that would handle 150,000 to 200,000 people," Baker said. "We would have put that many people in the stands. This is Nashville, and when you've got John Cash and Waylon Jennings doing the pre-race or post-race, then, yeah, they would have been coming from all corners of the globe. It was time, and I was ready to do it."

Baker said Hodgdon disagreed. Hodgdon, a California real estate developer who died in 2013, wanted instead to expand Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway similarly to the way Richmond Raceway was expanded in the 1980s.

"I said that would not work," Baker said. "The Fairgrounds facility was too small with horrible ingress and egress. Let's purchase some land somewhere and build a superspeedway."

The engineering drawings for the superspeedway Baker hoped to build were where the Primus Financial Services complex is currently located in Cool Springs.

"It was ready to go, but when Warner put (Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway) into bankruptcy, it got risky," Baker said. "NASCAR had to pull the Cup date because they were afraid a bankruptcy court could put the track in anybody's hands they wanted to. And so NASCAR was gone."

Legal notice was filed and published in The Tennessean on March 5, 1985, of the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway bankruptcy.

Baker never stopped believing NASCAR Cup racing belonged in Nashville. In fact, Baker retook control of the bankrupt facility when it was put up for auction on March 15, 1985, with hopes of luring the Cup back to town.

"All of the drivers and the people in NASCAR loved to come to Nashville," Baker said. "It was one of their favorite stops on the whole circuit. So, yes, Nashville deserved NASCAR and equally NASCAR deserved Nashville."

Nashville Superspeedway was doomed without NASCAR Cup racing

NASCAR was booming when the $125 million Nashville Superspeedway opened on April 13, 2001. Television ratings had reached an all-time high in the 1990s and sold-out crowds were the norm at most tracks.

Nashville Superspeedway needed only to secure a NASCAR Cup race to join the party. But that didn't happen.

NASCAR officials said at the time they were interested in new markets, which was an indication the Southeast would be excluded.

Veteran Tennessean NASCAR sports writer Larry Woody, who covered NASCAR Cup races at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway for many years, was never convinced Nashville Superspeedway would get a Cup race.

At the time, Dover Motorsports had two Cup races and many, including Woody, believed the best chance for Nashville Superspeedway to get a Cup race was for one of those to be moved there.

Financially, however, it didn't seem to make sense for the company.

"I thought the only possibility would be if Dover moved one of its races here and they kept saying they wouldn't do it because they hosted two (Cup races) a year and they got the fans there at the racetrack and Dover also owned Dover Entertainment, which is a gambling casino across the street," Woody said. "So they would actually be giving up four big crowds if they moved a Cup race from there. I said, 'Well, if Dover doesn't bring a race here I don't think NASCAR is going to give them one.'"

Nashville Superspeedway served as host for plenty of races from 2001 through 2011, including the NASCAR Xfinity and truck series along with IndyCar, but there was never a hint of a Cup racing coming to the track.

Nashville Superspeedway gets NASCAR Cup race after reopening

In 2019, talk of NASCAR Cup racing returning to Nashville started again. But not at Nashville Superspeedway.

Speedway Motorsports was interested in leasing Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway with hopes of bringing Cup racing in some form back to the historic track.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chase Elliott and Clint Bowyer were among the NASCAR personalities who strongly supported the Cup's return to the Music City.

That's why it came as such a big surprise on June 3, 2020, when Dover Motorsports officials announced they would reopen Nashville Superspeedway and finally move one of their Cup races there.

This was not what Elliott and some of the other drivers who wanted the Cup to return to Nashville Fairgrounds had in mind. Nashville Superspeedway, which has a concrete track, had a reputation for lacking side-by-side racing the drivers didn't care for. Elliott tweeted "One snooze fest at that joint will put a nail in the coffin of the fairgrounds, bummer."

Elliott changed his tune two years later when he won the second annual Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. The race, which featured plenty of side-by-side action, was interrupted by a lengthy weather delay and finished under the lights.

NASCAR Cup Series race shifted Nashville Superspeedway into a higher gear

Three of the the four Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series races have been sellouts including last Sunday's. Likely because the race earned even more solid footing in 2021 when SMI bought out Dover Motorsports.

Along with Dover Motor Speedway, SMI owns Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway.

"It was a number of things that led to the NASCAR Cup coming to Nashville Superspeedway," said Bristol Motor Speedway president Jerry Caldwell. "It was a great time for us as a sport to say, 'What are the right things to do? Not what have we been doing, but what are the next right things for us to do? How do we continue to grow this sport, how do we continue to find those markets that are really hungry for more motorsports,' and this was just natural."

Caldwell said the success of the Ally 400 was further proof to SMI that Cup racing would be a hit again at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway as well.

"The economy is really strong around here, there was a desire from local level and state level (government) for this racetrack to be put online and brought back to life," Caldwell said. "And then there was a great desire from the fans to say, 'We love that market and it makes a lot of sense."

What is the NASCAR Cup Series future at Nashville Superspeedway?

The vision many had for the potential of the Nashville Superspeedway in the 1990s has finally come true with the success the Ally 400 experienced over its first four years.

"The Nashville NASCAR Cup date was pulled in the 1980s and was not real quick to come back," Baker said. "At the time NASCAR was going pretty high, and right now it's a matter of NASCAR needs to go back to some of its roots that made it the incredible top-of-the-heap sport that it is. That's what they did by coming to Nashville Superspeedway."

Ally Financial became the title sponsor of the NASCAR Cup race at Nashville Superspeedway in its inaugural year (2021). That deal expires this year.

Negotiations about a new deal are ongoing with Ally Financial and other potential sponsors, according to Nashville Superspeedway senior vice president and general manager Matt Greci,. All indications are that a Cup race will return in 2025.

"We continue to see the positive momentum of the whole sport and the industry," Greci said. "We're happy about the current state of things. We're excited about the future. Nashville is important to (SMI) as a company and important for NASCAR."

Strong attendance for the Ally 400 is supported by the fact that the track's camping numbers are up this year 10% from last year's sellout.

"The market continues to see growth, and NASCAR is entertainment," Greci said. "I would argue that Nashville's the entertainment hub of the country if not the world. So for (SMI) to have a stake hold here with motorsports and NASCAR being at Nashville Superspeedway is very important because of the entertainment value. People are going to come to Nashville, and we want to have an opportunity to entertain them here."

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why the NASCAR Cup Series left Nashville and why it could be here to stay