IndyCar Music City Grand Prix moving from downtown to Nashville Superspeedway
The 2024 IndyCar Big Machine Music City Grand Prix will move from downtown to the Nashville Superspeedway, the IndyCar Series announced Wednesday morning.
The move was caused by construction issues related to the Tennessee Titans' new stadium. Nashville Superspeedway is a 1.33-mile D-shaped concrete track. It is the site for the NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400, scheduled for June 28-30.
The announcement for the Titans' $2.1 billion stadium came in February 2022. Groundbreaking is scheduled for Feb. 29. The Music City Grand Prix is expected to move back to downtown after construction of the stadium is complete in time for the 2027 NFL season.
A new date for the grand prix, considered a smash hit by IndyCar since its inception, was announced following the 2023 race, with it set as the finale for the IndyCar circuit on Sept. 15. That date will remain for the 2024 season and move to the superspeedway.
A new downtown design was part of that announcement. After examining the stadium construction plan, however, Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta made the call to move the race to Nashville Superspeedway, located about 40 miles away from downtown in Lebanon.
Kyle Kirkwood won the 2023 Music City Grand Prix. Scott Dixon won the race in 2022 and Marcus Ericsson in 2021.
NBC will continue to provide coverage of the race.
Why the Nashville IndyCar street race was moved from downtown
Big Machine Records founder Scott Borchetta said Wednesday that all of the race operations centered around the area outside of Nissan Stadium for the first three editions of the Music City Grand Prix. Race organizers released a proposed new course map last August, with the majority of the course on the other side of Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge and utilizing Lower Broadway.
But over the last two months of discussions, Borchetta said, it was clear that there was not enough time to evaluate the challenges of racing through that part of downtown, including race operations space. Borchetta said that race organizers wouldn't get approval from city council for the race until April, and they also wouldn't get an indication from the NFL about a possible Titans home game until the 2024 schedule release in May. If there was a snag, the 2024 race would be in flux.
"I don't think that (Music City Grand Prix organizers) really understood how much more it was going to take to actually run through what we call the island downtown," Borchetta said. "... (Those conversations) should have happened a year ago, and they didn't. So that's definitely part of the challenge."
The previous three Music City Grand Prix races, which were ran in early August, featured a famous trek over the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge. The redesign included keeping the bridge as part of the course. A number of downtown streets were closed for several days during the grand prix and the events associated with it.
IndyCar likely won't return to Nashville streets until after new Titans stadium is built
The IndyCar Series' Nashville date is not likely to return to the downtown streets until after the construction of the new Nissan Stadium is completed sometime in 2027. The Music City Grand Prix signed a three-year extension to its deal, running through the 2026 season.
"I don't see that we can properly race downtown until that stadium is completed," Borchetta said Wednesday. "I think we have to continue the conversations. There's nothing that I can say that is conclusive today. We all have a great desire to race IndyCars in Nashville. We have a great desire to return to the streets when we can."
IndyCar CEO Mark Miles also envisions a return to the Nashville streets once available.
"The pivotal thing is that this is a Nashville event," Miles said Wednesday. "Even if the racing isn't in downtown right now, that is eventually the intent and the vision for the event."
Borchetta also said that racing through downtown will be a challenge regardless of the Titans' stadium construction. The goal is to touch downtown, similar to the original Music City GP layout, but run the majority of the race on the stadium side of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge once the race returns.
The event will try to retain as much of the characteristics of the downtown race, including entertainment and continuing the pitstop competition. There will also be shuttles from downtown to Nashville Superspeedway.
IndyCar returns to Nashville Superspeedway for the first time since 2008
With the Music City race taking place in September, it is not expected to interfere with the Ally 400, also in its fourth year.
“We are excited to welcome the Music City Grand Prix to Nashville Superspeedway,” Nashville Superspeedway general manager Matt Greci said. “Our track has a strong history of hosting premier racing events, and we’re eager to showcase our facility's versatility by adding this prestigious event to our calendar. With our infrastructure and experienced team, we are fully equipped to help deliver an exceptional experience for fans, drivers and stakeholders alike.”
Speedway Motorsports purchased Nashville Superspeedway from Dover Motorsports in 2021. Officials at the time said they wanted to add other types of racing other than NASCAR to the track.
“When we acquired Nashville Superspeedway in 2021, hosting events like the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix was part of our vision,” Speedway Motorsports president and CEO Marcus Smith said. “Speedway Motorsports always wants to expand our event calendar with exceptional entertainment for fans that also increases economic impact for the entire Middle Tennessee region.”
It won't be the first time IndyCar has run at the Superspeedway. It was there eight times for races from 2001-08. Dixon won the last three races there. There also was talk of building a road course for grand prix races when the Superspeedway was built, but that never happened.
With the switch to Nashville Superspeedway, the 2024 IndyCar schedule will wrap up with three straight oval races.
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259- 8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: IndyCar Music City Grand Prix moving from downtown to Nashville Superspeedway
