FANTASY NASCAR Racin

The fairgrounds originally opened in 1891 as a horse racing track named Cumberland Park. In September 1904 another series of races was organized. Most of the entrants came directly to Nashville from the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. Racing pioneer Barney Oldfield was one of the entrants. People marveled at cars driving over 60 miles per hour. The park became the home of the Tennessee State Fair in 1906. The track is the oldest continually operating track in the United States. The track began holding annual events in September 1915 to coincide with the state fair. Many of the same drivers from the Indianapolis 500 brought their cars down to Nashville.

In 1958 the racers got a 10-year lease from the state fair board in order to build a paved 1⁄2 mile track which shared the frontstretch with a 1⁄4 mile track. At the time the track was 1/2 mile oval. In 1958 NASCAR ran it's first race there with a distance of 200 laps. A capacity crowd of 13,998 watched Joe Weatherly win the first NASCAR race on August 10, 1958. The race finished under caution as Jack Smith blew a tire and crashed with five laps to go. 1959 saw the race lengthened to 300 laps and Joe Lee Johnson claim the win by three laps. Coo Coo Marlin was the first back-to-back champion in 1965-1966. 1968 champion P.B. Crowell decided to retire, and hired the talented young Darrell Waltrip to drive his car. Country music legend Marty Robbins raced often at the track in his signature purple and yellow race cars. Several changes

happened at the track in the 1960s. Lights were added to the 1⁄2 mile track in 1965, and races in the main division moved to the big track. A fire burned the grandstands at the 1965 State Fair. New grandstands were built and the track was lengthened (and banked to 35 degrees) in 1969. The bankings in the corners proved to be too fast, so the banking was reduced to 18 degrees in 1973. Cale Yarborough would dominate the race leading 416 of the races 420 laps (250 miles). The picture below on the left noted as "1977" shows a picture of Bobby Allison (12), Dave Marcis (2), and Darrell Waltrip (88) racing for the lead. Benny Parsons would get the win with Yarborough finishing second, followed by Waltrip, Marcis and Richard Petty. In 1984, the top NASCAR series fielded its final race at the facility after disputes with city government and track management. In the final race Geoff Bodine would

lead 327 laps to get the win over Darrell Waltrip. Personally, I always loved pit stops at this track. The track had a 1/4 mile oval race track inside the main 1/2 mile track. Both tracks used the same section of the track as their front straight. When a car needed to pit it would go down toward turn #1 and enter onto the 1/4 mile track. After the pit stop the car would continue on around the 1/4 mile track and exit near turn #4. Pit stops were wild. Cars pitted on BOTH side of the small track. There was barely one lane in the center for cars to go through. It was total chaos. I wish I had a video to show it here. Of the 42 Cup races, Richard Petty has nine wins, with Darrell Waltrip right behind with eight wins. Waltrip won five of six races between 1981 and 1984. The track held nine Xfinity Series races in 1984, 1988, 1989, and from 1995 to 2000; while

the Truck series had five races between 1996-2000. The track was replaced on the schedule by the newly opened Nashville Superspeedway. That Speedway would get NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Series race from 2001-2011, but the Cup Series never raced there until 2021. Following sluggish attendance for major events and no prospects of gaining a Sprint Cup event, Dover Motorsports announced that Nashville Superspeedway would not seek NASCAR sanctions in 2012, effectively shutting it down, on August 3, 2011. As far as Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway; the last photo shows the track as it is today. As mentioned above this track is still active. The track was renamed "Music City Motorplex" for 2004 by new promoter Joe Mattioli III, whose family also owns Pocono Raceway and South Boston Speedway. It has been changed back since. Tony Formosa Jr is the current promoter of Nashville

Fairgrounds Speedway. He still has a weekly racing program as well as other special events; including the All American 400. A Super Late Model event that is one of the most prestigious in the country. One tedious issue currently is that the powers that be will only give the speedway a one year contract, renewing it each year. Meanwhile most other venues have multi-year contracts so they know how long they will be there and feel confident in making capital improvements; etc. The track is kind of in limbo from year to year. info as it becomes available.... One funny story involving Marty Robbins happened when he was racing in the Nashville 420 Cup race. By now Robbins was a headliner on the Grand Ole Opry, and made regular appearances. Often being the shows closing act.

One Saturday night, Robbins was running very well in the Cup race and being competitive. He suddenly pulled into the pits and reporters rushed to see what malfunction he had with his car. One reporter ask "Marty, Marty, what put you out of the race. Did the motor blow up". Robbins just looked at him and smiled saying, "Oh the car..?, nothing wrong with it at all. I have to close out the show at the Grand Ole Opry, and if I don't leave now, I will be late". But as the end of 2022 rolled around, the owners of the race track and city officials seem to have come to some sort of agreement to get the old track revitalized and a good chance of NASCAR racing returning there. And, NASCAR seems to be interested in maybe getting some of

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

NASHVILLE FAIRGROUNDS SPEEDWAY - NASHVILLE TN