A Nashville Fair Board commissioner said during Tuesday‘s meeting that “there‘s not going to be a NASCAR race at the (Fairgrounds) Speedway in 2022.”
Speedway Motorsports, through Bristol Motor Speedway, is working on a deal with the city of Nashville for a long-term contract to lease, manage and operate Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. As part of the deal, Speedway Motorsports would assume financial responsibility for renovations and maintenance of the track. That is subject to approval by the Nashville Board of Fair Commissioners and Metropolitan Council.
Jason Bergeron, a Fair Board commissioner, raised his concerns Tuesday about the time period for details on the speedway project (expected to be revealed May 11 at a public meeting) and public input. He also addressed his doubts that there would be NASCAR racing next year at the track.
“I‘m not clear why this isn‘t a longer period (after the proposed May 11 meeting) after that for more public input,” he said. “I understand that there are goals here.
“The more I dig in on this timeline of urgency — we need to be honest here, there‘s not going to be a NASCAR race at the speedway in 2022. There‘s not. There‘s no way that construction of basically an entirely brand new speedway facility is going to be complete between late summer 2021 and in time for 2022. I think we need to be honest about that.”
