Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Grandstand Upgrades Coming

The Speedway at Nashville Fairgrounds in Nashville Tennessee will be getting a makeover in 2017 but not to the.596-mile paved racetrack but to the grandstands. Approximately $2.5 million in improvements will be made to the Grandstands.
The track, which is part of the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, is located just South of Downtown Nashville and has hosted the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards the last two years along with in 1992. Josh Williams went to Victory Lane in this years race, where The Motorsports News Source was in attendance.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series last raced there in 1984, while both the Xfinity and Truck series last raced there in 2000 before moving to the 1.333-mile Nashville Superspeedway in nearby Lebanon, Tenn., where the last NASCAR-sanctioned races were held in 2011 but don't expect to see NASCAR return anytime soon. I personally would love to see the K&N East Series add Nashville Fairgrounds to the lineup, ARCA will hopefully have another race at Nashville next season on a schedule to be announced.
According to The Tennessean newspaper, Nashville Mayor Megan Barry announced that the city will invest $15 million into improving and updating the Fairgrounds complex, which has seen some of its property become antiquated or dilapidated.
The three-year improvement program will renovate five exposition buildings, demolish others and create new soccer fields and a dog park, according to The Tennessean.
The grandstands of the racetrack will receive “significant upgrades,” including restroom and entrance improvements, the newspaper said. But the track itself will not receive any upgrades.
That the track will not see any upgrades leaves race promoter Tony Formosa “very disappointed,” he told The Tennessean. Formosa said the overall racing facility needs improvements to fencing, walls, pits and the track speaker system.
“The racetrack has been the roots of the fairgrounds since it began, and the racetrack needs to carry on and it needs improvements,” Formosa told The Tennessean. “It’s in very bad shape."
“There’s a lot of things that could be done that wouldn’t cost a whole lot to do.”
Formosa has a contract to host races at the Fairgrounds through the remainder of 2016.
Construction on the overall project is slated to begin next year. (Koelle,2016; in part from The Tennessean)

Comments