Nashville Mayor John Cooper and Bristol Motor Speedway officials have reached a deal in principal to return NASCAR Cup racing to Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, according to a report Monday in The Tennessean.
The report cites multiple unnamed sources with knowledge of the deal and states an announcement will come later this week. The NASCAR Awards Celebration takes place in Nashville this week. Burnouts on Broadway will be Wednesday. The Awards Celebration will be Thursday. NBCSN will air both events Saturday. Burnouts on Broadway will air at 6 p.m. ET Saturday. The Awards Celebration will air from 7-9 p.m. ET Saturday.
The deal between the city of Nashville and Bristol Motor Speedway is subject to approval by the Board of Fair Commissioners and Metropolitan Council.
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As part of the deal, Bristol Motor Speedway would have a long-term lease to manage and operate Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway and assume financial responsibility for renovations and maintenance of a track that dates to 1904.
The 0.596-mile track hosted at least one Cup race a year from 1958-84. The Xfinity Series raced there in 1984, ’88, 89 and from 1995-2000.
A letter of intent between the city and Bristol was signed March 4.
NASCAR’s 2022 schedule is set. Speedway Motorsports Chief Executive Officer Marcus Smith said in August that the “soonest” the track could host a NASCAR weekend would be 2023.
NASCAR returned to the Nashville market this past season. The Cup Series raced for the first time at Nashville Superspeedway. The track is located in Lebanon, Tennessee, about 35 miles from Nashville.
Nashville Superspeedway will host the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (June 24), Xfinity Series (June 25) and Cup Series (June 26) in 2022. The Cup race will air on NBC and mark the beginning of the NBC/USA portion of the Cup schedule.
This past season marked the first year in a four-year sanctioning agreement Nashville Superspeedway has with NASCAR. Speedway Motorsports announced Nov. 8 it would acquire Dover Motorsports, which operates Nashville Superspeedway and Dover International Speedway.
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Report: Deal in place to return NASCAR to Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway originally appeared on NBCSports.com