In Our Own Backyard: How IndyCar Found a Home in Wilson County
Most towns have to travel to host something world-class. Wilson County just had it move in. The premier open-wheel racing series on the planet, the NTT IndyCar Series, runs its Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway, and that track sits in our county, the same one as Mt. Juliet, off 400 Victory Lane in Lebanon. For families here, the most exciting weekend on the motorsports calendar isn't a trip you plan. It's a neighbor.
A River Crossing, Then a Homecoming
The Music City Grand Prix didn't start out here. From its 2021 debut through 2023, IndyCars roared around a roughly 2.17-mile temporary street circuit threaded through downtown Nashville, an 11-turn layout with one unforgettable signature: the cars crossed the Cumberland River over the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge twice every lap, racing one direction on the way out and the other on the way back. The bridge straightaway stretched roughly 3,578 feet, and it made this the only IndyCar layout ever to race over a major river. The very first race even staged its rolling start right there on the bridge deck.
It was conceived as music-meets-motorsports. The inaugural event, a three-day festival running August 6 through 8, 2021, paired racing with concert stages just blocks from the honky-tonks of Broadway, and the country lineup that weekend ran deep, with The Oak Ridge Boys, Brooks & Dunn, Jon Pardi, and Jamey Johnson among the performers. An estimated 110,000 fans poured downtown across the three days, building from roughly 20,000 on Friday to about 60,000 for Sunday's race.
That first race, an 80-lap, roughly 173.6-mile affair, was chaos from green to checkered: nine caution periods, two red flags, and 33 of 80 laps run under yellow. A multi-car pileup at Turn 11 on Lap 20 collected a crowd of drivers, and two competitors were disqualified. Pole-sitter Colton Herta led 39 laps before crashing out on Lap 75. The winner, Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing, took it despite a wild Lap 4 crash in which his car rear-ended a rival and briefly launched several feet airborne, ending Sebastien Bourdais' day. His teammate Scott Dixon finished second, James Hinchcliffe third. Dixon went on to win downtown in 2022; Kyle Kirkwood took the 2023 edition.
How the Race Landed Here
Then geography did us a favor. Construction of a new Nissan Stadium for the Tennessee Titans, part of the sweeping East Bank redevelopment, conflicted with the downtown race footprint. A redesigned seven-turn downtown course extending deeper into the Broadway honky-tonk district had been floated for 2024, but the stadium build and redevelopment made relocation the answer. Beginning in 2024, the Grand Prix headed about 30 miles southeast to Nashville Superspeedway near Lebanon, planting one of motorsport's biggest weekends right inside Wilson County.
The track was ready for the moment. Opened to the public in April 2001, it's a 1.33-mile D-shaped concrete oval with 14 degrees of banking in the turns, one of only a handful of concrete racing surfaces in major American racing. It hosted open-wheel racing from 2001 through 2008, and after Speedway Motorsports acquired it in 2021, it added NASCAR Cup Series dates to its Xfinity and Truck schedules. Permanent grandstands seat about 25,000, expandable with temporary seating. On September 15, 2024, open-wheel racing came back, and the Music City Grand Prix served as the IndyCar season finale for the first time, the first oval-format finale in roughly a decade. Colton Herta won it for Andretti Global, his first career oval victory, while Alex Palou clinched the season championship.
Hometown Heroes and the Oval's Magic
The oval rewards close, lead-trading racing, with cars topping 200 mph. The 2025 finale, run over Labor Day weekend on August 31, proved it: 20 lead changes among 12 different drivers and 284 total passes for position. The storybook ending belonged to Nashville-area native Josef Newgarden of Team Penske, who scored his first win of that season and his first ever at his home track. That year also brought a new title sponsor, Borchetta Bourbon, tied to Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta, the music executive who was a driving force in bringing IndyCar to Nashville back in 2021. His bourbon is produced in Lynnville, Tennessee, from locally grown heirloom red, white, and blue corn, stone-milled on site and 100% copper pot distilled. Penske Entertainment now runs the event's promotion, with Borchetta serving as a liaison to Nashville's entertainment and civic community.
For Wilson County neighbors, the math is hard to beat: a quick run down the interstate rather than a downtown parking hunt, tailgate lots and on-site camping, and kids welcomed for ten dollars. Since the move to the oval, weekend attendance has run in the range of about 40,000 to 42,000, close enough to home that race day can feel less like an event and more like a block party.
The 2026 Race: Under the Lights
This summer raises the stakes. The Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by OnlyBulls runs the weekend of July 18-19, 2026, with race day Sunday, July 19. For the first time, the event finishes under the lights in prime time, airing on FOX following the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final, as the 12th round of the 17-race IndyCar schedule. The weekend pairs the headline IndyCar race with the Indy NXT by Firestone support series, plus live music and family activities, all minutes from home.
How to Get Tickets
Wilson County neighbors can lock in seats through Nashvegas.com. Browse the full Race Weekend packages, single-day Race Day tickets, or Practice & Qualifying access, then grab your spot with the primary Buy Tickets link.
For reference, 2025 weekend packages started at $70, with Premium Plus grandstand seating at $150 per person, including reserved parking and tip-up seats overlooking the start/finish line. Children 12 and under attended the full weekend for $10 with an accompanying adult ticket. Hospitality options included the RPM Club and Champions Club, and camping packages started at $200 at the Glade Campground with race tickets purchased separately. Tickets are also sold through MusicCityGP.com and the 866-RACE-TIX phone line. However you go, the world's fastest open-wheel cars are racing right here in Wilson County. Let's fill the grandstands.
