Put retired NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace in favor of moving local racing to Nashville Superspeedway and closing Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
It was just over a month ago that a Davidson County judge blocked the certification of a petition which aimed to remove auto racing as a protected activity on the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, instead seeking to replace that land with housing.
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Now in the wake of NASCAR’s annual visit to the Nashville Superspeedway on May 29-31, Wallace has registered his desire to see further expansion of Nashville’s newest raceway at the expense of the city’s oldest track.
“Maybe we just need to forget about the Fairgrounds,” Wallace said in a video posted to Facebook on June 3, before later adding, “We had 30,000 people at Nashville Superspeedway. I don’t think you’re ever going to fit 30,000 people into the Fairgrounds.”
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Currently the Fairgrounds Speedway, located adjacent to Geodis Park, can hold roughly 15,000 spectators, while the Nashville Superspeedway in Gladeville, just south of Lebanon, holds 25,000 with the ability to expand to 38,000. A capacity crowd was in attendance at the Nashville Superspeedway on May 31 for NASCAR’s Cracker Barrel 400.
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The Fairgrounds Speedway, a 0.596-mile oval, regularly hosts local racing events but has not hosted a NASCAR race since the opening of the Nashville Superspeedway in 2001. The Fairgrounds Speedway had previously hosted NASCAR races annually since 1958.
“(Should we) build a short track out there in Lebanon right next to the (Superspeedway),” Wallace asked in the video. “Just seems like the thing to do.”
Shortly after winning May’s NASCAR All-Star Race in Dover, winner Denny Hamlin expressed his desire to see next year’s All-Star race come to the Fairgrounds, while in April, Dale Earnhardt Jr. raced at the Fairgrounds Speedway for the first time since 1999 as part of the zMAX Series CARS Tour.
Chase Elliott also previously expressed his desire to see the Cup series return to the Fairgrounds in 2024.
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Harrison Campbell can be reached at hcampbell@usatodayco.com and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @hccamp.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What Kenny Wallace said about forgetting Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway
