Metropolitik is a recurring column featuring the Scene’s analysis of Metro dealings.
Racing fans will flock to Wilson County in May for the newly minted Cracker Barrel 400 — and the suburban Nashville Superspeedway might be the closest NASCAR gets to the city itself. Several legal and ethical obstacles have cluttered the road to a new agreement between the city and national track operator Speedway Motorsports Inc. that once promised to bring NASCAR back to The Fairgrounds Nashville.
A $164 million racetrack overhaul to set up a high-profile NASCAR Cup Series event seemed close to reality in the waning days of former Mayor John Cooper’s administration, before then-Councilmember Colby Sledge executed a nifty scheduling maneuver that indefinitely postponed a contract between Metro and track operator Speedway Motorsports. Should Speedway Motorsports woo Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office into a lease-and-renovate deal — similar to the contract for a new Titans stadium inked by Cooper and opposed by then-Councilmember O’Connell — the NASCAR operator would pocket tremendous business advantages and another marquee site in a tourist town despite the opposition of certain neighbors, environmentalists and urbanists who envision different uses for such prime public property.
Jasper Hendricks, chair of the Fair Commissioners Board and key NASCAR supporter, has become embroiled in an ethics controversy. Brought on by an ethics complaint in October, the Metro Board of Ethical Conduct determined late last year that Hendricks violated rules prohibiting officials from giving “the impression that any person can improperly influence, or unduly enjoy their favor in, the performance of their official duties.” Ethics commissioners have not been happy with Hendricks’ lackluster responses regarding a conflict of interest from a pivotal public figure overseeing a nine-figure deal on behalf of taxpayers. They skewered his recent response to the board at a March 2 Board of Ethical Conduct meeting.
As Mayor O’Connell considers fairgrounds racing, a Nashville track could set up a lucrative real estate deal in Wilson County
“It’s deficient,” said board member Chris Sabis, an attorney who professionally handles government inquiries. “It provides some self-serving characterizations of his prior relationships with NASCAR, but it does not actually talk about what those relationships are.”
Local political veterans are broadly playing defense against any potential NASCAR deal, and a little offense against Hendricks and the Metro Charter. Attorney John Spragens, a former Scene staffer active in Democratic politics, lodged the ethics complaint against Hendricks, whom the anti-racing crowd deride as “JASCAR.” Spragens’ timely and thorough responses to the board, where Spragens previously served as a member, helped favorably advance the complaint through Metro’s slow-moving bureaucracy. In an official disclosure to the board filed this week, Hendricks says his attendance at various NASCAR races and events has been “observational in nature and did not involve any financial interest, advisory role, or decision making authority connected to racing entities.”
Mike Kopp, a strategist active in music and politics, and former city hall insider Saul Solomon are carrying a charter amendment to block auto racing at the fairgrounds — a requirement of the site, as added to the Metro Charter in 2010. In its place, the proposed amendment would swap in “Affordable and/or Workforce Housing” as required at the site. In February, former race car driver Neil Chaffin challenged the amendment language from Kopp and Solomon in chancery court, slowing down the amendment’s path to a public vote. Kopp and Solomon recently filed a request to expedite a ruling from Chancellor Patricia Moskal; if the charter revision effort wants to put its racing ban on the Nov. 3 ballot, it needs to start collecting the required public support — more than 50,000 signatures from Davidson County voters — by April.
Spragens, Kopp and Solomon are joined by branded efforts like “Fairgrounds Preservation Partners” and “Restore Our Fairgrounds,” which maneuver opposite pro-racing groups “Save My Fairgrounds,” “Save Our Fairgrounds” and “Restore Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway,” the latter a shell for Speedway Motorsports. Raising alarms about the heavily polluted Browns Creek, which runs feet from the racetrack along Craighead Street, the Cumberland River Compact has also joined the effort. When a deal last appeared at the Fair Commissioners Board, area Councilmember Terry Vo and local community groups opposed handing track control to Speedway Motorsports — and NASCAR events specifically — due to concerns about noise pollution, quality of life, tourist chaos and logistics.
Board issues warning to Jasper Hendricks, recommends training and disclosure in racetrack case
Mayor O’Connell has avoided wading too deep into the issue. After assuring media in December that he will consider any deal that’s good for taxpayers, O’Connell tells the Scene on March 18 that he hasn’t met with anyone about a racetrack deal in “weeks” and has not seen any specific contract. O’Connell does say that the city has been triangulating concerns between Speedway Motorsports and Nashville SC, the professional soccer team backed by billionaire John Ingram that competes next to the track at Geodis Park. The pro-racing crowd alleges that Ingram money is secretly behind their opponents’ multipronged campaign.
The mayor has direct control over the Fair Commissioners Board, which currently has a vacant seat but no one to fill it, according to O’Connell.
“ We have offered the opportunity to serve on the Fair Board to so many people since the start of the term, and just have not had anybody willing to commit,” O’Connell tells the Scene. “ We’re trying to see if we can get somebody from one of the communities very close to the fairgrounds.”
O’Connell — with procedural help from the Metro Council — could also push Hendricks off the board if he considers the chair’s ethical concerns a taxpayer liability.
Fast cars, billionaires, electoral campaigns, corruption allegations, class tensions — the racetrack’s ongoing saga already has powerful city forces colliding at the fairgrounds. The mayor, Speedway Motorsports and public advocates will likely continue jockeying for position as the county heads toward a potential referendum vote later this year.
