Here's to hoping that Nascar will consider bringing one or both of the series (heck bring back Cup too!) from the Superspeedway to the historic 5/8's Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
From earlier this morning concerning Nashville Superspeedway--
http://nationwide.nascar.com/nationwide-series/news/110803/nashville-off-schedule/index.html
As a middle Tennessean who cut his racing teeth at the fairgrounds, I just never warmed to the Superspeedway. In its 10 years of existence, I went to 1 Busch race and 1 Indy qualifying session. That's it. I had zero emotional attachment to it despite living only about a 1/2 hour from it.
Part of it is likely age and part of it is I don't like being played like a fool. When Hodgdon messed up Gary Baker, Lanny Hester and others at the fairgrounds, NASCAR walked. When (grit my teeth) Darrell Waltrip, Joe Caldwell & others supposedly had NASCAR committed to returning, Nashville's fair board screwed 'em over to get extra few pennies from beer sales. The leasing team that took over promised "NASCAR Winston Racing" would return - not Cup. But the morons on the fair board had no idea about the difference - they just wanted the extra cut. Sure enough, Winston Racing returned but not Cup. We did have the short run of Busch races, but the shortsightedness of the fair board unquestionably killed that track - and is still holding it by the short & curlies today.
As for Dover & McGlyn, I really don't know that bunch well. I'm going to Dover in October for the 1st time for 3 reasons: (1) it looks like I'm going to meet The King (2) I've never been and (3) did I mention I'm GOING TO MEET THE KING.
Those guys took a business risk. They rolled the dice of a "build it and they will come" strategy. Apparently to Dave's point, McGlyn must not be a great biz guy. One, tracks had already been snatched up by ISC or SMI - everyone else was living on borrowed time. Two, 5 years ago when the NASCAR market was at its peak, Dover should have auctioned off its whole portfolio and made its shareholders whole. They would have been crucified for it by racing purists. But economically, it would have made the most sense.
Instead, they'll likely have to sell Nashville to ISC at a Craigslist price. And they'll be drawn and quartered by NASCAR for their 2 dates that will likely go to SMI's Vegas and a TBD ISC race.
I agree with most everyone here about this not being unforeseen. But, and I may be wrong, but I don't see why ISC or SMI would be a buyer of the superspeedway. In the other instances of a speedway conglomerate purchasing a racetrack it was basically because they wanted to transfer the track's race dates to one of the other tracks in their "portfolio", or as in Bruton & Kentucky Speedway's case, move a race date from one their under performing tracks to one that is fertile for a sellout. The race dates at the Nashville Superspeedway are not highly sought after (actually not sought at all), and I don't think someone else can come in and fill up the seats at that track unless they wanted to transfer one of their existing cup dates to Nashville (I'm being optimistic when I say "not likely"). Too Much Country nailed it in regards to the Fair Board. I do still hold out hope that the old Fairgrounds could get one or both series, but lets just say the politics over here are not too race friendly right now. Too Much Country, say hey to the King up at Dover!
UPDATE: The amendment to save Nashville's Fairgrounds (including the Speedway) won by a landslide vote with a 71% to 29%for saving the Fairgrounds in Thursday's city election. This means that local racing at the Fairgrounds will continue, (currently a limited schedule) and it cannot be torn down as the Mayor wanted. The city now has to come up with a master plan for the facility.
