Dover Motorsports Inc. has announced that one of Dover International Speedway’s two yearly NASCAR Cup Series races will move to Nashville Superspeedway in 2021, returning NASCAR national-level racing to the facility near Lebanan, Tenn., and marking the first Cup Series race there.
“We were energized to see how excited Nashville was to host the NASCAR Cup Series banquet last December,” Dover Motorsports Inc. President and CEO Denis McGlynn said. “When we built Nashville Superspeedway in 2001 our goal was to one day secure a NASCAR Cup Series race for the venue. Nashville, central Tennessee and the surrounding market area is filled with passionate race fans. We are thrilled that we were able to collaborate with NASCAR and our television partners to get this done, and we can’t wait to put on a great show there in 2021. While we have been in discussions with NASCAR for some time about the possibility of bringing the NASCAR Cup Series back to Nashville Superspeedway, plans really just became solidified in recent weeks. We will have many more announcements and exciting updates to share regarding plans for the facility shortly.”
Nashville Superspeedway hosted the NASCAR Xfinity and Truck series yearly from 2001 through 2011 and shut down after the 2011 race season. A portion of the property was sold to a development company, but Dover Motorsports Inc. retained the 1.33-mile concrete race track and enough property to accommodate parking.
Meanwhile, Speedway Motorsports Inc., the parent company of Bristol Motor Speedway in East Tennessee and several other tracks hosting NASCAR racing, is making efforts to return NASCAR to Fairgrounds Speedway near downtown Nashville. Those efforts have hit several roadblocks, including former track promoter Tony Formosa losing his lease of the facility, the availability of municipal funds to make necessary improvements to the track and plans to construct a Major League Soccer stadium at the Fairgrounds that would possibly compete with the track for needed space for parking, etc.
Fairgrounds Speedway hosted NASCAR national-level racing through the 2000 season before the Xfinity and Truck series moved to Nashville Superspeedway. The Fairgrounds Speedway last hosted Cup Series racing in 1984.
NASCAR moved its Cup Series Awards banquet to Nashville from Las Vegas in 2019.
