The Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tennessee has hosted American open-wheel car racing events dating back to 2001.
History The 2001 event marked the first American open-wheel event in the Nashville area. During some years events were held on Saturday nights. The 2007 event was postponed until Sunday after a series of rain showers at the track.
Following the 2008 event, Indy Racing League officials decided to end their association with Nashville Superspeedway. The event was removed from the 2009 schedule, and afterwards the facility shuttered for several years. Subsequently renamed as the IndyCar Series, the series returned to the Nashville area in 2021 with the Music City Grand Prix on a downtown street circuit. Due to construction downtown, beginning in 2024 the race was moved to the Nashville Superspeedway. The race is currently the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix. In 2026, the event was originally scheduled to become a 400-mile race, as well as move to late July, following the FIFA World Cup final, but due to excessive rainfall, the race was postponed to Monday, July 20. The race was also shortened from 300 laps back down to 225 due to extreme heat conditions.
As a Nashville-area racing tradition, from 2001 through 2008 the winner received a hand-made and painted Gibson Les Paul guitar. When the current event moved to the Superspeedway in 2024, the guitar tradition continued with agreement by Gibson, promoter Scott Borchetta, and circuit owner Marcus Smith.
Race summaries 2024: For 2024 the Music City Grand Prix was moved to Nashville Superspeedway and scheduled as the season finale. The race would be a championship deciding showdown between Álex Palou and Will Power. Palou only needed to finish ninth or better to secure the championship, while Power had to win the race and hope Palou finished no better than tenth to win the championship. A glimmer of hope was given to Power during qualifying when he managed to qualify fourth while Palou had to take a nine position grid penalty for an unscheduled engine change, leaving him to start 24th on the grid. Kyle Kirkwood meanwhile qualified on pole, earning his first oval pole position. Power's championship hopes faded early in the race when he had to make an unusual early green flag pit stop on lap 13 for a seatbelt that had come undone in his car. Josef Newgarden took the lead before a yellow on lap 56 came out when Felix Rosenqvist blew a tire. Through two more caution periods the race turned to a head to head battle between Newgarden and Colton Herta, with Herta finally getting the best of Newgarden on lap 147. After clearing David Malukas and Scott Dixon, Herta battled with lapped traffic and eventually Pato O'Ward to retake the lead for good, taking his first victory on an oval. With Power multiple laps down, Palou secured his third IndyCar championship. Pato O'Ward finished second while Josef Newgarden rounded out the podium in third.
Past winners SeasonDateDriverTeamChassisEngineRace DistanceRace TimeAverage Speed(mph)ReportRefs Laps Miles (km)2001 July 21 Buddy Lazier Hemelgarn Racing Dallara Oldsmobile200266.6 (429.051)1:44:44144.809 Report2002 July 20 Alex Barron Blair Racing Dallara Chevrolet200266.6 (429.051)2:01:53127.997 Report2003 July 19 Gil de Ferran Team Penske Dallara Toyota200266.6 (429.051)1:53:18137.679 Report2004 July 17 Tony Kanaan Andretti Green Racing Dallara Honda200266.6 (429.051)1:55:35 134.975 Report2005 July 16 Dario Franchitti Andretti Green Racing (2) Dallara Honda200266.6 (429.051)1:57:13133.089 Report2006 July 15 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara Honda200266.6 (429.051)1:36:46161.205 Report2007 July 15* Scott Dixon (2) Chip Ganassi Racing (2) Dallara Honda200266.6 (429.051)1:35:06164.03 Report2008 July 12 Scott Dixon (3) Chip Ganassi Racing (3) Dallara Honda171*227.943 (366.838)1:30:05148.072 Report2009–2023 Not held2024 September 15 Colton Herta Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian (3) Dallara Honda 206 273.98 (440.93) 1:43:15 159.207 Report2025 August 31 Josef Newgarden Team Penske (2) Dallara Chevrolet 225 299.25 (481.49) 1:54:50 156.342 Report2026* July 20* Álex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing (4) Dallara Honda 225* 299.25 (481.49) 1:51:38 157.193 Report
Notes
Support winners Indy NXT Season Date Winning driver Ref2002July 20 Cory Witherill2003July 18 Mark Taylor2004July 17 Thiago Medeiros2005July 16 Jaime Camara2006July 15 Jay Howard2007July 14 Robbie Pecorari2008July 12 Ana Beatriz2009–2023 Not held2024September 15 Louis Foster2025August 31 Myles Rowe2026July 19 Matteo Nannini
References
External links champcarstats.com