Geoff Bodine outdueled Darrell Waltrip at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway to win the NASCAR Cup Series race on July 14, 1984. Photo: NASCAR Media
Offering both a rich history and a modern-day sparkle on the NASCAR calendar, Nashville Superspeedway holds a vital position in the sport.
The track is home to Sunday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race and the town hosts the annual NASCAR Awards Ceremony each winter.
Many of NASCAR’s brightest stars claim Tennessee roots – from NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip and his two-time Daytona 500-winning younger brother Michael to another two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin and the late, fan favorite and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Bobby Hamilton.
The Nashville area actually goes back to NASCAR’s earliest glory days. NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Weatherly won the sport’s first Cup Series race at the Nashville Fairgrounds across town in 1958 and Geoff Bodine won the last race there in 1984. Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Richard Petty is the all-time winningest at that former half-mile venue, hoisting nine trophies there.
Modern day NASCAR visits the neighboring 1.33-mile concrete Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tennessee. Completed in 2001, it has picked up the race baton and is a top-tier event for both fan and competitor.
“I like Nashville,” Harrison Burton said. “It’s a cool city and the fans are always excited. It’s been a fun racetrack for us with lots of lane choices.”
The track’s history is unique in that there were exciting key races at Nashville Superspeedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series from 2001-2011, before a decade-long break on the competitive calendar and a purchase two years ago by Speedway Motorsports.
The NASCAR Cup Series marks only its third race at Nashville Superspeedway with a pair of past champions earning the previous two Gibson guitar trophies. Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson led a dominating 264 of 300 laps and held off runner-up Ross Chastain by more than 4-seconds to claim the 2021 victory en route to his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Last year, Larson’s teammate Chase Elliott held off Kurt Busch by .551-seconds to earn the 2022 race win. Denny Hamlin led the most laps (114) but finished sixth.
The drivers and teams have immediately taken to one of the newer venues but most traditional of locations on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
“It’s an interesting place,” said Austin Cindric. “It’s an intermediate that drives like a short track or a short track that drives like an intermediate. It probably depends on how your car is handling, but it’s a pretty involved racetrack with a lot of shifting and different lanes.
“It’s a nice race again this year, so I’m looking forward to that. Obviously, I don’t think there are too many better locations for a NASCAR race to be, so I think it definitely deserves a race on the schedule and I’m looking forward to going back.”
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