Nashville Superspeedway NASCAR Race Track

NASCAR's Nashville Superspeedway in Tennessee

Located in Gladeville, Tennessee, the Nashville Superspeedway is a concrete track which is oval in shape and measures roughly 2.145 km (1.333 miles) in length. It is situated about 30 miles east of Nashville and was built in 2000. There are currently only three concrete tracks currently on the NASCAR circuit and the Nashvill Superspeedway is one of them. The track is owned by Dover Motorsports and it currently hosts four major races each year – two NASCAR Busch Series races (the Pepsi 300 and the Federated Auto Parts 300), one NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and one Indy Racing League event.

The Nashville Superspeedway has a seating capacity of 50 000 with the potential to be expanded to 150 000 should the trace be chosen to host a NEXTEL Cup event though currently NASCAR has shown little interest in doing so. In fact it would seem that there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding Dovor Motorsports unwillingness to move either of its two most successful races from the Dover International Speedway to the Nashville Superspeedway. This has resulted in NASCAR’s unwillingness to allow the track to host a NEXTEL Cup event which has resulted in it being the only track to host two Busch Series events and not be included on the NEXTEL calendar.

The track is called a ‘superspeedway’ as it is slightly longer than a mile as opposed to a ‘speedway’ which is traditionally shorter than a mile. The use of the term in the name helps to differentiate it from the Nashville Speedway USA which is 0.596 miles in length. The Speedway can be found at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds in Nashville. The Speedway originally conducted a number of races in the Winston Cup Series but this was eventually stopped due to disagreements over track management.

The Superspeedway near Nashville has at least one interesting tradition worth mentioning. One such tradition is that of presenting race winners with specially-designed Gibson Les Paul guitars instead of trophies. While these may take up more space on the trophy shelf, they have a functional purpose as well as a special uniqueness which makes them that much more special. The Nashville Superspeedway in Tennessee is also known for producing a large number of first-time winners.