Nashville Superspeedway will reopen in 2021 for NASCAR competition. The announcement came as a result of a report from The Athletic on Tuesday (June 2), marking the first time any major touring series has raced at the track since 2011.
According to sources, the track will host a NASCAR Cup Series race for the first time in its history. The date will replace one of Dover International Speedway’s two dates. Dover Motorsports Inc. also owns Nashville Superspeedway.
NEWS: Nashville Superspeedway to host NASCAR Cup Series race in 2021, sources tell @TheAthleticAUTO https://t.co/S60tJIMuaD
— Jordan Bianchi (@Jordan_Bianchi) June 3, 2020
The 1.33-mile track was opened in 2001 and hosted both of NASCAR’s lower series until that final year in 2011, closing as a result of low attendance.
It’s been occasionally used by NASCAR to test but hasn’t held a major race since shuttering. IndyCar also raced there until 2008, as did the ARCA Menards Series.
Several proposals in recent years indicated efforts to return competition to the track, including a deal in 2018 that requested $54 million in bond payments and $2 million in cash from the city of Nashville — a deal that was struck down by then-mayor David Briley.
Last year, Nashville did host the season-ending awards ceremony for NASCAR, and the sport’s executives have publicly said they would support a race held in the Music City.
Carl Edwards and Austin Dillon won the final races at Nashville in 2011 in the Xfinity and Gander RV & Outdoors Truck series races, respectively.
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and also hosts the Adam Cheek's Sports Week podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.