New speedway manager sees resurgence for old track

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The stands are never crowded. Paint has peeled away in strips from the underside of the grandstand roof.

Tall signs ring the track from right to left along the backstretch, but ads for a car dealer and bank in Turn 4 have faded.

Thousands of fans once cheered Richard Petty, Fireball Roberts and Dale Earnhardt on this short track next to the Tennessee State Fair.

Dennis Grau, the new manager of the renamed Fairgrounds Speedway, wants to recapture that magic of one of the oldest tracks in America.

"This is like Wrigley Field. Every ballplayer loves to play at Wrigley Field," he said.

Grau, with help from investors, has spent thousands of dollars renovating the track in the past four months and saved it from being closed. For 44 years, the track has been a host to racing, although now the drivers are backyard mechanics instead of the country's best.

Racing at the track dates to 1891, when horses competed at the Fairgrounds. Nashville's first motor race was as early as June 1904, ranking it among the nation's oldest.

"It's right up in that neighborhood," said U.S. Auto Club historian Donald Davidson, who noted that Milwaukee and Indianapolis had motor races on their fairground tracks in 1903.

By comparison, the Indianapolis 500 didn't begin until 1911.

Nashville turned its 1-mile dirt oval into a .596-mile asphalt track in 1957 to attract NASCAR.

Drivers came in droves to compete on a track that mimics top courses like Daytona, Darlington, Wilkesboro and Bristol. Drivers who used Nashville to prepare for NASCAR include Darrell Waltrip, Sterling Marlin, Casey Atwood and Jeff Green.

The strongest memory of Nashville for Petty, who won nine races on this track, was the heat.

"Even if it had wanted to be cool, it wasn't going to be. The pits were lower than the track and there was no way to get a breeze there," Petty said.

"It just didn't seem like you had been at a race there unless four or five people passed out in the pits, and you lost a driver or two to the heat."

The intensity of the fans added to the charm.

"They didn't throw things or anything like that," Petty said. "They were just really vocal. It is amazing what some 20,000 people can do when they put their minds to it, and they could really make some noise."

The asphalt wore down so quickly that it favored dirt track racers used to sliding through turns. NASCAR visited regularly between 1958 and 1984, finally turning away when Nashville officials refused to add more seats and amenities.

"Darryl Waltrip called Bill France Jr. and asked, 'What does this mean?' " retired NASCAR historian Bob Latford said. "He said, 'To you, it means about 370 points a year,' because he won so much, and eight came at Nashville."

Without the top races, the old track had only its weekly schedule for nearly 20 years. Nashville landed a Busch Series race in 1995 and a Craftsman Truck event in 1996.

Dover Downs Entertainment Inc. took over the lease in November 1997 and moved the top races to its new $125 million Nashville Superspeedway 20 miles away in 2001.

The company planned to close the historic track a year ago and move the weekly schedule for up-and-coming drivers to a new short track.

That didn't sit well with Grau. He had fallen in love with the track while working as a vice president with Mid-State Automotive, an auto parts company sponsoring the speedway's top racing level the past three years.

He said to himself, "I'm going to make this program thrive again."

The state Fair Board, which controls the track at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, was more than willing to work with Grau. The track turned a profit of nearly $1 million before Dover Downs opened its superspeedway. Last year, the short track lost about $30,000.

"They built a new track," Fair Board chairman Alex Joyce said. "That's their future. That's what they're excited about."

The racing at the Fairgrounds Speedway now ranges from Legends cars with 1200cc motorcycle engines and street cars with roll bars to souped-up trucks and the premier Late Model Series' high-performance engines and chassis in new cars.

Fair Board commissioners believe that tradition and a lease only limiting racing on Sunday morning means there is still life left. They plan to take bids for a new lease late this year.

Grau, who persuaded Dover Downs to let him take over the final months of its lease, is working hard to prove he and his investors should run the track for years to come.

He resealed the asphalt and upgraded the pits. He refurbished and repainted the restrooms and concourse, and installed a new sound system. All this before his first races in March.

He also advanced marketing by getting the track featured in a new weekly TV show with a radio station broadcasting races each Saturday night.

Grau offers pit tours and free admission for women, and prices affordable for families -- no charge for children under 5 and a top ticket price of $12.

Joe Buford, a three-time track champion, said two tracks in the area make for twice the fun for fans.

"I'm just really tickled Dennis came in and took over. He's got this historic track back going again," he said.

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On the Net:

Fairgrounds Speedway: www.fairgroundsspeedway.net

Nashville Superspeedway: www.nashvillesuperspeedway.com