Nashville voters may get to kick racing out of a track that’s run cars since 1904. What they won’t get to vote on is the $100 million-plus rebuild plan, or the 30 years of bond payments that would come with it.
On September 18, the Restore Our Fairgrounds coalition, which includes the nonprofit Citizens Against Racetrack Expansion, turned in a petition with nearly 75,000 signatures to the Davidson County Election Commission. The petition backs a Metro Charter amendment that would take auto racing off the list of uses the fairgrounds is required to host. The fair, the flea market and the expo center would stay. The speedway land could then be turned into green space and housing.
The math behind the rebuild
The proposed renovation, which has not been approved, is now expected to cost more than $100 million. A $17 million state grant and money from the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp would cover part of the cost. Under the proposal, Metro would borrow the rest through Sports Authority revenue bonds.
The money to cover the debt would come largely from the track operator. Speedway Motorsports, the parent company of Bristol Motor Speedway, would get a 30-year lease on the rebuilt track under the proposal. Metro’s published deal terms set rent at $1 million a year, rising 1% annually, plus a share of ticket taxes, sponsorships and concessions. If racing is removed from the charter after the bonds are sold, Metro could still owe the payments on a facility that no longer has its main tenant. So far, neither side of the petition fight has said much about that in public.
Why this is happening a second time
This is the second version of the same amendment. In April 2026, Davidson County Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal overturned the Metropolitan Charter Revision Commission’s certification of the first one. Her ruling didn’t address racing or housing. It rested on Metro Charter § 19.03(c)(6), which says an amendment’s subject must be “clearly expressed in its title.”…