TRAC and Nashville – Fairgrounds Speedway? First-year Fairgrounds Speedway president Dennis Grau is exploring the possibility of hosting a Team Racing Auto Circuit (TRAC) race next year. That would necessitate expanding seating capacity to 40,000. Nashville Superspeedway has 25,000 permanent seats. The number of temporary seats fluctuates from race to race. Dover Motorsports, the track’s parent company, does not release attendance figures, but crowd estimates at the Superspeedway’s various races so far have ranged from 45,000 for last year’s inaugural Busch Series event to 15,000 for a Craftsman Truck Series race. Grau said Fairgrounds Speedway seats 15,688, and TRAC requires a minimum of 40,000 seats for one of its events. Grau said additional seats can be installed to meet that requirement if the track gets a race. If Fairgrounds Speedway expanded to 40,000 it could surpass Nashville Superspeedway’s seating, depending on how many temporary seats are in place at any given time. TRAC official Charlie Jeter said the association hopes to place one of its 10 teams in Nashville, and said he ”is very interested” in Fairgrounds Speedway as a potential racing site. The new league has already secured the use of some of the nation’s top tracks: Las Vegas, Atlanta, Bristol, Texas and Lowe’s (Charlotte).(Tennessean)(5-30-2002)
