There was already a whole lot of work that needed to be done to the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in the first place. A fire that broke out below the grandstands in June just added another item to the to-do list.
There’s been rumblings of NASCAR returning to the Nashville Fairground ever since former Mayor John Cooper announced in 2021 that the city had signed a letter of intent with Bristol Motor Speedway to renovate the Fairgrounds Speedway, which hasn’t hosted a NASCAR Cup Series race since 1984.
Evidently, that’s still been a work in progress – or maybe even a work in limbo – all of these years later. Current Mayor Freddie O’Connell views the potential renovation as a low priority compared to other issues Music City faces, and has been hesitant to commit to restoring the Nashville Fairground Speedway due to taxpayer protection and noise complaints from the community.
Now there’s another issue associated with the historic racetrack: fire damage.
Back on June 2, a fire broke out in the concourse area below the grandstands of the racetrack. After over a month, the cleanup is finally complete, and officials say the cleaning and debris removal alone cost just under $10,000. The higher ups at the Fairgrounds obviously didn’t factor that into their annual budget.
The good news (if you want to call it that) for them is that investigators determined the fire was accidental and caused by an electrical issues inside the merchandise storage area. The bad news? Restoration estimates look to be over $70,000. Because it was rules as accidental, it opens the door for insurance to step in and cover the costs.
Laura Womack, the Executive Director at the Fairgrounds Nashville, was quoted by WKRN saying that insurance and Metro Legal are already stepping in to help:
“The restoration work is looking to run in the area of $70,000. Clearly, that was not in our budget. That was not anticipated. We are working with Metro Legal and insurance on covering those costs so that will not be coming out of our budget. We can thank metro for that support and that work. That will hopefully be starting soon.”
Those at the Nashville Fairgrounds also said that the fire damage won’t impact any future races or other events, but restoration can’t start until the quote is finalized. The meetings around the cost of the fire restoration have also brought up concerns about the safety of the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, and it’s aging infrastructure.
Fair Commission Chair Jasper Hendricks has previously said that’s why they wanted to make the deal with Bristol Motor Speedway to renovate the race track:
“The changes that we’ve been trying to advocate for, that’s one of the reasons why we want this racetrack deal, is so it can improve the facility… We’re sort of getting frustrated because we’re stuck in limbo. Because we voted on something years ago that other people are trying to undo.”
There’s still a NASCAR fanbase in Nashville, and a healthy contingent in the racing community that want NASCAR to return to the historic track. There’s also a healthy collection of NASCAR drivers, like Ryan Preece, who thinks the racing association should make the iconic raceway a mainstay in the schedule.
Now with the fire clean up, there’s even more work to do for NASCAR to come back to Music City.
