Mike OrganNashville Tennessean
Nashville Superspeedway has been around since 2001 and is celebrating its 15th year in operation in 2024. The track closed in 2011 and reopened in 2021 with the NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400.
The fourth annual Ally 400 is set for June 30 (2:30 p.m., NBC).
Here's a look at some of the most memorable moments that have taken place at the 1.33-mile D-shaped oval Nashville Superspeedway over the years:
Kyle Busch smashed a signature guitar at Nashville Superspeedway
Rock 'n' roll crowds cheered wildly when Pete Townsend, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain destroyed their guitars after headbanging performances. Kyle Busch expected to get a similar reaction when he trashed a Sam Bass-designed Les Paul guitar after winning the Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway on June 7, 2009.
That was not the case.
Busch's stunt struck a sour note. Instead of shattering into lots of pieces like a rock star's instrument, Busch's guitar just kind of broke apart at the base. It was far from spectacular, but still very memorable.
Busch said the moment did not go as planned, but did not apologize. His only regret was that he didn't do more damage to the guitar. His intent, he said, was to share remnants of the instrument with members of his team.
Busch told Bass there was no disrespect intended and he would pay for two more guitars to replace the one he destroyed.
Busch won another guitar trophy in 2021 after claiming a NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. After strumming a few chords Busch raised the guitar above his head and pretended to smash it before bringing it gently back down and strumming a few more chords.
The smokin' hot wife prayer
By 2011 fans had started to worry racing at Nashville Superspeedway didn’t have a prayer.
That was before Joe Nelms stepped to the mic.
Nelms, the pastor at nearby Family Baptist Church in Lebanon, restored faith in the sport at least for one race when he delivered the Invocation for the Federated Auto Parts 300 on July 22, 2011.
Holy carburetors could that man pray.
Nelms thanked God for the “mighty machines” on the track then mentioned the drivers, teams and manufacturers along with Sunoco fuel and Goodyear tires.
Then he kicked it into higher gear when Nelms prayed, “Lord I want to thank you for my smokin' hot wife tonight Lisa. And my two children Eli and Emma or as was like to call them, the 'Little E's'. Lord I pray you bless the drivers and use them tonight. May they put on a performance worthy of this great track. In Jesus' name, boogity, boogity, boogity, amen."
Video of Nelms’ stirring prayer went viral and lives on in NASCAR lore.
Danica Patrick's ascent to Indy Car fame included Nashville Superspeedway stop
It was 2005 when Danica Patrick burst onto the IndyCar Series scene and her ninth career race was at Nashville Superspeedway in the Firestone Indy 200 on July 16.
The 23-year-old Wisconsin native was on her way to being named Rookie of the Year and Most Popular Driver of the Year when she showed up at Nashville after posting the best finish (fourth) ever for a female at the Indy 500 and becoming the first female to ever lead the race (three times for a total of 19 laps).
How popular was Patrick after that?
"Not just the motorsports world but the entire sports world took notice," Nashville Superspeedway vice president and general manager Cliff Hawks said at the time.
Patrick led the Firestone Indy 200 for 13 laps starting on the 123rd lap. She finished seventh as one of only 13 drivers to complete the race. Dario Franchitti, a Williamson County resident at the time, was the winner.
Patrick was even better when she returned to Nashville Superspeedway in 2006 and finished fourth and 2007 when she was third.
Carl Edwards was dominant on Nashville Superspeedway's concrete track
Carl Edwards won three consecutive races on Nashville Superspeedway's 1.33-mile track from 2006-07 and a total of six, an accomplishment that helped solidify his nickname "Concrete Carl."
Along with his six wins at Nashville, Edwards won six times at Bristol and four at Dover, which also have concrete surfaces. Edwards' wins at Nashville came in Nationwide and truck series races.
He had more NASCAR wins at Nashville than any other driver before the track closed in 2011.
Edwards' success at Nashville also helped popularize his trademark back flips after wins.
"There was a stretch where I felt like we couldn't lose at Nashville," Edwards said in 2009.
Austin Dillon's celebration was a disaster
Austin Dillon came up with his own victory celebration as his NASCAR career began to take off.
His first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race victory came at Nashville Superspeedway in 2011 providing him with the chance to show off his move for the first time.
Dillon took a running start and attempted to do a headfirst belly slide across the infield. It didn't go well.
The grandson of team owner Richard Childress got his upper body stuck in the grass, which led to his feet flying over his head. He laid on the turf for several moments with oohs and aahs coming from the crowd of 11,000.
Dillon, 21 at the time, said he wanted to do something "cool" to celebrate his first win and had actually planned the dive.
His father Mike Dillon suggested Dillon talk with Edwards about taking tumbling lessons.
The first race
On April 14, 2001 the inaugural race was run at Nashville Superspeedway.
It was the ARCA Re/Max Series PGF Lester 150 and was won by veteran NASCAR driver Ken Schrader.
Schrader, who had recently made his 500th NASCAR Cup start, took the lead with 15 laps to go and held on until the end of the 115-lap race. Frank Kimmel finished second and Shawna Robinson, the only female in the field, was third.
Other notable drivers in the inaugural race included Jason Jarrett (sixth), the son of Cup Series champion Dale Jarrett and grandson of two-time champion Ned Jarrett, and Steadman Marlin (13th), son of two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin.
Official attendance was not announced, but media covering the race estimated the crowd at 20,000.
The inaugural Pepsi 300 Busch Series race was the following day at Nashville Superspeedway. Greg Biffle won that race.
The rest of the top-10: 2, Jason Keller; 3, Scott Wimmer; 4, Randy LaJoie; 5, Elton Sawyer; 6, Mike Skinner; 7, Kevin Harvick; 8, Jeff Green; 9, Mike McLaughlin; and 10, Todd Bodine.
Biffle went on to win 19 NASCAR Cup races in 515 starts before retiring from fulltime competition in 2016. He was named one of NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers.
IndyCar comes to Nashville
Two months later IndyCar made its debut with the Harrah's Indy 200 in the Indy Racing Northern Lights Series race at Nashville Superspeedway.
The July 21 race was action-packed and won by Buddy Lazier in front of a crowd of 32,000. The race featured a six-car, 200 mph pileup just past the halfway point.
The victory was Lazier's third in four races and the seventh of his career.
The race returned from 2002-08 as the Firestone Indy 200. Legendary Indy Car driver Scott Dixon won the last three races.
It was announced in February the IndyCar Big Machine Music City Grand Prix would move from downtown Nashville to the Nashville Superspeedway Sept. 13-15. The reason for the move was related to construction of the Tennessee Titans' new stadium since the track was near the stadium.
Reopening Nashville Superspeedway for a NASCAR Cup race
After being dormant for nine years the announcement came on June 5, 2020, that Nashville Superspeedway would reopen in 2021 and Dover Motorsports would move one of its NASCAR Cup races to the facility.
On June 20, 2021, the inaugural Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series Race became the first Cup race to take place in the Nashville area since 1984 at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
The venue had undergone a renovation over the previous year and a capacity crowd of 38,000 showed up on Father's Day to see Kyle Larson dominate (led 264 of 300 laps) on the concrete track. Ross Chastain was second, William Byron was third, Aric Almirola, who was on the pole, was fourth and Harvick was fifth.
In the fall of 2021 Speedway Motorsports acquiredDover Motorsports. SMI officials stated at the time they planned to continue to bring NASCAR Cup racing to Nashville Superspeedway.
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.
