A little more than a year ago, the group running the Music City Grand Prix released a jaw-dropping plan for its fourth race in downtown Nashville in 2024. With a new Tennessee Titans stadium in the works, the race had lost most of its circuit, so the new vision was to send the cars blazing down five blocks of Lower Broadway between the honky-tonks before turning left onto Fifth Avenue and making a loop that was to include the telegenic out-and-back over the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge.
IndyCar CEO Mark Miles promised “an unbridled celebration of the most fierce and competitive motorsport on the planet, set against the backdrop of an innovative and breathtaking stage that includes one of the premier global entertainment districts in the world.”
It sounded far-fetched, and Scott Borchetta knew it. The founding CEO of the race’s title sponsor, Big Machine Label Group, and a key player in bringing IndyCar to Nashville in 2021, Borchetta spent last winter and spring executing a quiet takeover of the Music City Grand Prix and probably saving its life by moving it — temporarily, Borchetta hopes — to the Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, 35 miles out of downtown. Even without the disruption of the Titans stadium construction, the much-hyped event had underperformed in its third year. The vast, expensive vision was on life support.
“Prior management were fiscally irresponsible, and it got to a point where we were either going to have to take it over or shut it down,” Borchetta tells the Scene. “And there’s way too much at stake for IndyCar, for Nashville, for Big Machine, for this great event to not continue. So we identified a way to restructure and rebuild the operation into something that’s very robust. Ultimately, it’s got to be a business. And now it’s a business.”
But for fans, it’s a motor race, and not the one they’ve grown to expect. As chaotic as they can be, street courses like Nashville’s — defined by barriers and catch fences — remind people of the driving they do on city streets, only a lot faster. Now the drivers will race on a 1.3-mile loop, promising what the uninitiated sometimes deride as driving in circles. The city skyline and the dramatic sight of cars going 175 mph on Korean Veterans Bridge won’t light up TVs all over the country this year. Yet there are upsides.
A close look at the track, the drivers and the technical aspects of this weekend’s race
A few years ago, IndyCar — the sanctioning body for America’s top open-wheel racing league — embraced Nashville, moving our race to the end of the season calendar. That meant the champion (determined by points scored across the season) could be determined and will be crowned at the MCGP. Borchetta calls it landing the “Super Bowl of IndyCar.” The league even moved its champions banquet to Nashville, further affirming its bullishness on the city.
For fans, there are other wins. The September dates should be cooler than the early-August races of 2021, 2022 and 2023. Grandstand seats are significantly less expensive, while parking and entry are easier. And whereas fans get to see only a portion of a city street track from their seats, patrons in Lebanon will be able to see the entire sweep of the track and the pit lane from almost every seat. And seats are selling fast.
Oval track racing, by the way, is how IndyCar started in the early 20th century on the famous bricks of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indy 500. Ovals make up about a third of the 17-race IndyCar season, and they deliver the highest speeds and closest-quarter battles among the drivers in their 750-horsepower machines.
IndyCar has history at the Nashville Superspeedway, and everyone involved in this dramatic reconfiguring of the MCGP feels fortunate that there was a backup option nearby when the downtown race fell apart. The venue opened in 2001 thanks to a $125 million investment by Dover Motorsports, a huge player in NASCAR headquartered in Concord, N.C. IndyCar ran there from 2001 to 2008, with the last three races won by Australian Scott Dixon,a six-time IndyCar champion who arrives in Nashville this season in fifth place with two wins on the year.
Hendersonville's Newgarden finishes fourth in downtown Nashville race
Race track economics can be brutal, as league-wide rule changes and market vicissitudes can sometimes leave owners and promoters hung out to dry. Ten years ago, such shifts left the Superspeedway in debt and without any major races. An arcane business soap opera played out, and eventually NASCAR returned; the track was sold to Speedway Motorsports, owner of famous tracks at Bristol, Atlanta, Charlotte and Fort Worth. This is the same company vying for a long-term lease to bring NASCAR racing back to the historic Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, says area racing insider Ricky Haynes.
Haynes, a friend of Borchetta’s since the 1990s and a fellow board member of the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Hall of Fame, says many of the Middle Tennessee race fans he speaks with are disappointed about the loss of a downtown street course (until 2028, at the earliest) and skeptical about the amenities in Lebanon. But he’s personally optimistic.
“Scott’s a visionary,” says Haynes. “He surrounds himself with good, qualified people, and he’s trustworthy. I can’t think of a better person to make this a success. And I hope that people will support the move out to the Superspeedway, knowing that this was not their vision for this [race].”
Meanwhile, there’s a championship to decide this weekend. Local hero and two-time champion Josef Newgarden, despite becoming the sixth driver in history to win a second consecutive Indy 500 this year, is out of contention. The points leader and favorite to close out 2024 with the big trophy is defending champ Alex Palou of Spain. Australian Will Power, the 2022 winner, has been nipping at his heels of late and needs a win with a rather poor showing by Palou to upset him. But it’s possible: Palou severely underperformed in Milwaukee last week — on an oval.
Haynes says track improvements since the 2010s should make passing easier, which is what fans and drivers both want. There’s no longer a middling country music festival built into the ticket price (though there is some live music planned). Fans can buy round-trip shuttle tickets from downtown. It’ll be an adjustment for everyone, but given how close the MCGP came to an embarrassing extinction, we’ll take it.
