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The track was built in 2001 and currently hosts four major races: two NASCAR Nationwide Series races and two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races. The IndyCar Series Firestone Indy 200 was run at the track from its opening until 2008. As of 2005, NASCAR has shown little interest in staging a Sprint Cup Series race at the track, though NASCAR would likely not object if track ownership moved one of its races from Dover International Speedway to Nashville. Management has shown no inclination to move either of its two successful races away from Dover. Nashville Superspeedway is one of two tracks to host two NASCAR Nationwide Series races without hosting any Sprint Cup Series events, the other being Gateway. Prior to the 2010 race season the track only hosted one Camping World Truck Series race each year at the beginning of August. In October 2009, Dover Motorsports decided to close Memphis Motorsports Park, and the Memphis Truck race originally scheduled for late June 2010 was be moved to Nashville Superspeedway on April 2, one day prior to the annual Nationwide Series race at the track. The April Truck race is currently known as the "Nashville 200". Unlike Martinsville Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, the other two race tracks to host two Camping World Truck Series races on the 2010 schedule, Nashville Superspeedway does not host a NASCAR Cup event. As is a Nashville metropolitan tradition, specially-designed Gibson Les Paul guitars are presented to race winners in place of conventional trophies. The track also has a reputation for producing many first-time winners. The track is referred by the classic term of a "superspeedway" (a track of one mile (1.6 km) or longer, compared to a short track), and is named to differentiate itself from the .596 mile Nashville Speedway USA (now Music City Motorplex) at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds near downtown Nashville. Until 1984, the Nashville Speedway USA had conducted a pair of 420-lap Cup races, but NASCAR pulled its sanctioning license from the circuit after disputes over who would manage the track took place prior to the start of the 1985 season. On August 3, 2011, Dover Motorsports announced that the track will not seek NASCAR sanctions in 2012, effectively shutting it down. In the announcement, Dover also hinted that the track may be up for sale, but it remains unclear if the track will still be available for private use, such as car & tire testing. See also: List of NASCAR race tracks |