On June 1st, 2025, Ryan Blaney put up a fantastic race. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion led a race-best 139 of the 300 laps, winning the event and securing a Cup Series playoff position. This event unfolded at Nashville Superspeedway, a fairly new track that has only held five Cup Series races. However, its sister track, a 67-year-old facility, may be seeing a bleak racing future.

NASCAR track faces a jittery prospect

“Then the really difficult work of getting tens of thousands of Nashvillians to sign on in support of the charter amendment [to ban Fairgrounds racing] would begin this spring…John Ingram, the lead owner of Nashville SC, supports the plan to ban racing,” NASCAR reporter Adam Stern updated on X.

Local residents have divided opinions about Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc. While talks of the historic track’s renovation and renewal in 2027 were underway, a group of people wanted to ban racing from the venue, thinking of better purposes. They involve a coalition of neighborhood and environmental groups that want to replace auto racing with affordable or workforce housing on the list of programming required at the fairgrounds.

This effort to curtail Nashville’s racing future suffered a blip as the Metro Charter Revision Commission rejected an initial ballot measure proposal. Nevertheless, the Restore Our Fairgrounds group plans to tweak its ballot language and come back to the charter commission later this month. Nashville SC (Soccer Club) owner John Ingram has continuously opposed Fairgrounds Speedway expansion, given a clash between NASCAR and soccer.

If this movement achieves its purpose, NASCAR may have to say goodbye to the Fairgrounds expansion. The NASCAR Cup Series raced at Nashville Fairgrounds from 1958 until 1984. The now-defunct Superstar Racing Experience all-star series raced there in 2022. A new agreement between SMI and Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell was aspiring for the track’s return in 2027, only to face opposition from Nashville’s local groups.

However, not all residents of Nashville are vying to ban auto racing.

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Offering a suitable justification

The LiUNA Local 386, a union of 1,000 construction and service workers, wants auto racing in Nashville. Its goals are simple – to ensure that any effort at development protects local jobs and also that taxpayers bear no burden because of such redevelopment. The construction work for a new NASCAR racetrack would provide employment. Also, the union wants to protect the “affordable entertainment options” for working-class families.

Ethan Link, the Union’s business manager, summed up their motivation for Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. “The Nashville Fairgrounds and Speedway have always been a place where working Nashvillians could gather, celebrate, and participate without being priced out. Any development on public land should protect affordable, accessible spaces, create good local jobs, and make sure the people who work and live here are the ones who benefit.”

Additionally, Mayor Freddie O’Connell said that Nashville already has over 500 acres of land available for housing development elsewhere in the county. So it is not necessary to tear down the race track for that purpose.

Clearly, a well-defined fight is unfolding within Nashville regarding NASCAR’s racing heritage. We can only wait and see which side prevails.