The Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway restoration project took a step forward Tuesday evening when the Nashville Fair Board of Commissioners voted three to two to approve Bristol Motor Speedway‘s blueprint for the historic facility.
Bristol and parent company Speedway Motorsports launched the revitalisation plan in 2020, which received the blessing of Nashville Mayor John Cooper the following year in the form of a letter of intent. A formal commitment was reached between the two parties in November to finalise Bristol’s operation process.
In short, Bristol would oversee Fairgrounds Speedway for thirty years, during which the track would host the NASCAR Cup Series and support divisions like the Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series. Permits to use the track were for four weeks of the calendar year, with three being for nearby areas while the other is exclusively for the track. The “landmark” deal also set race weekends at ten per year and a specific track operating schedule.
If it goes through, the State of Tennessee and Nashville Convention and Visitors Convention will provide USD$17 million (€16,388,850) each in grants.
With the vote swinging in the Fairgrounds’ favour after the Fair Board vote, it now must go through the Nashville Metro Council followed by the Metropolitan Sports Authority.
“We are thankful to the Nashville Fair Board for supporting the vision to restore the historic Fairgrounds Speedway,” Bristol president Jerry Caldwell stated. “They invested a lot of time vetting this opportunity, and we agree it provides a financially responsible future for the speedway while shifting the risk off taxpayers to a private operator, and completes the restoration of the Fairgrounds with improvements like a state-of-the-art sound-reduction wall that benefits the surrounding neighbourhoods. We look forward to working with the Metro Council in the weeks ahead and believe that they also will agree that this is a smart plan for the future of the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.”
Nashville Fairgrounds hosted the Cup Series from 1958 through 1984.
