Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants NASCAR in Nashville; would race if it returns

Mike Organ | The Tennessean

Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes NASCAR belongs in Nashville.

He is happy the NASCAR Cup Awards banquet, which is Thursday at Music City Center, has come to town and is convinced it's a good fit.

But Earnhardt wants more for Nashville. He wants NASCAR racing to return to town at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville.

And if it does in the next few years Earnhardt said he would race at the historic track.

"I think we belong in Nashville," said Earnhardt, who will be in town for the awards banquet. "I think we belong in Nashville racing cars. That's more important than even having the banquet there. It's a great place for us to be racing and we should be racing there."

Earnhardt retired from racing in 2017 and is now a broadcaster for NBC. He still runs one race each season and said he would get back behind the wheel more often if NASCAR returns to the Fairgrounds track.

"If they ever did run an (NASCAR) Xfinity race there and it's in the next four or five years I'd love to put that on my calendar as a race to go run," Earnhardt said. "Because that was a lot fun when we used to race there in '98 and '99. I had more fun probably racing the late model there with (Joe) Buford and (Chad) Chafin and all of those guys back in the day."

Speedway Motorsports is trying to bring NASCAR back to Nashville. In May, the company proposed a $60 million renovation project at the Nashville Fairgrounds to then Mayor David Briley and the Metro Board of Fair Commissioners.

The proposal, presented by Jerry Caldwell, executive vice president of Bristol Motor Speedway, featured a 30,000 seat-capacity structure, an expanded concourse, premium seats, pedestrian tunnels and sound barriers.

Earnhardt has kept a close watch on the effort to bring NASCAR back to Nashville because he is so passionate about the cause.

"The door is open for (NASCAR) to think about where we need to be or should be and I have to feel like Nashville and the Fairgrounds specifically has to be in that top three places we should be trying to go to," Earnhardt said. "I know Marcus Smith (general manager of Speedway Motorsports) and Bristol (Motor Speedway officials) and those guys are extremely interested in doing that. Marcus is an amazing guy and has the best interest of the track and the community in his heart and would do an amazing job not only bringing NASCAR back, but improving the facility; putting the money and efforts into the facility to see it be able to thrive."

The Fairgrounds Speedway hosted 42 NASCAR-sanctioned races from 1958-1984, including two annual races from 1973-84.

Earnhardt's father, Dale Sr., began his career racing regularly at the Fairgrounds and continued to do so when he became one of NASCAR's premier drivers when the track still had Cup races in the 1980s.

"We certainly don't want to see a track with so much history just become an afterthought," Earnhardt said. "The great way to continue that tradition is to have truck races, Xfinity races, even Cup races at that racetrack one day and it put on an amazing show."

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.