IndyCar leaving Nashville Superspeedway for 2027

The IndyCar Series’ three-year return to Nashville Superspeedway has met its end.

The remainder of the 2027 schedule is expected to be released on Friday, and among the changes, the Speedway Motorsports Incorporated-owned oval in Lebanon, Tenn., will not be part of the calendar, according to the event’s promoter.

“SMI & NSS have been great partners in hosting the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix for the last three years,” Scott Borchetta, the CEO/founder of Borchetta Entertainment Group, Big Machine Records, and Big Machine Distilleries told RACER. “But the original vision for the Grand Prix still stands – to become ’The Monaco of the South.’  If we don’t put our complete focus and investment into returning downtown, it won’t happen. IndyCar and FOX love Nashville and there is a great desire to return to its downtown streets.”

Borchetta’s original event took place next to downtown Nashville from 2021-23 with a street course that wove around the Tennessee Titans’ NFL stadium. The event was due to move to a true downtown layout in 2024 before issues arose while the old stadium was scheduled to be razed and replaced with a new facility. Nashville’s speedway racing ranked as some of the best action of the season, but widescale turnout by fans never matched the same level of engagement that Nashville’s street racing offered.

With construction due to be completed in 2027, Borchetta wants to bring the 2024 plans to fruition as part of a future IndyCar schedule before the end of the decade.

Friday’s schedule release will include confirmation of IndyCar’s first visit to race in Spain, the expected absence of the one-and-done Washington D.C. Grand Prix, and other events that will solidify the calendar.