Tennessee

From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”

All-Time Favorite Tennessee Track:

Tie! Nashville International Raceway and Bristol International Raceway – Nashville & Bristol

Current lifetime trackchasing state rank:  4

Best Memories:

My first ever racing visit to Tennessee was to watch the All-American 400 back in 1981 at the Nashville International Raceway. The late Butch Lindley was the winner. What I remember most was that Carol got a great picture taken with Darrell Waltrip. Then in 1982, I came down to Bristol to see DW win the NASCAR Cup race at the Bristol International Raceway. A couple of months later I came back to watch ol’ DW win again. That made Nashville and Bristol the first two tracks I had seen in Tennessee and still my most favorite Volunteer state tracks to this day.

I was at the Nashville Super Speedway to see Kenny Schrader win their inaugural event in 2001. Schrader showed up when I went to the Clarksville Speedway as well. I guess that was a lucky visit. I won a free t-shirt! I described the racing on the Music City Motorplex (inner oval to the Nashville International Raceway) as pathetic. The Cleveland Speedway was a fast, high-banked great viewing track. The Thunderhill Raceway was another top-notch high-banked late model track. 

The Spring City Speedway offered up a woman announcer, who was one of the most unusual announcers I have ever heard. The Tazewell Speedway and Volunteer Speedway’s presented high-quality big-time dirt late model racing, some of the best I’ve seen. I really loved seeing the high-banked asphalt racing at the Highland Speedway. There are not many tracks old-time asphalt tracks like that still running today. The highlight of my visit to the Kingsport Speedway was meeting Bobby Allison and his wife Judy.

I’ve seen some very good kart racing in Tennessee. The Beechnut Raceway was one of those really good looking and entertaining kart tracks. Atoka Raceway Park was excellent in this category as well. Another fun kart track was the Dumplin Valley Speedway (above). Good kart racing indoors at the Ned McWhirter Ag Complex too.

At the Psalm 23 Duck River Raceway Park I randomly sat next to a guy named Dave Garrison, a racechaser. He couldn’t have been nicer. Dave and I would meet up later along the racechasing trail. I was able to convince Dave to submit his trackchasing list. On that first night, we met Dave told me he had cancer. Sadly Dave later passed away from his disease.

I think I’ve watched more racing parked on upper tiers in Tennessee than any other state. I’ve also seen my share of low car count and questionable organization race programs here as well. It’s too bad these traits are actually not unique to Tennessee but seem to exist in way too many places. I was most disappointed in the World of Outlaws sprint car race at the Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville (above) in 2019.

If you see a track link in the above list simply click on it to be transferred to my Trackchaser Report. Here you will be able to read about my adventure at this particular track. Not only will you learn about my time at the track but you’ll hear about all of the interesting people, places and things I encountered during the entire trip, coming and going, to that speedway. Most of my Trackchaser Reports will also include a photo album and YouTube video. Check it all out. Don’t be afraid to use the “search” box in the upper right corner of my website’s home page. Just type in the track name or whatever and you’ll be directed to the place you want to be.

Below is a key to surface types and track configurations so you can understand the above list just a little bit easier.

Surface types:  D-dirt; P-paved; M-mixed

Configuration types:  O-oval; RC-road course; F8-figure 8 track