It Was Supposed to Be 1,200 Cars. The First Mecum Sale in Wilson County Showed Up With 1,750.
When Mecum Auctions first announced it was coming to Wilson County, back in March, the plan was modest by the company's standards: four days at Nashville Superspeedway and roughly 1,200 collector cars. By the time the gates opened this week, the sale had grown to five days and an estimated 1,750 vehicles. For a first-time event at a track most people know for NASCAR and IndyCar, that is a remarkable amount of chrome to fit between the grandstands.
The inaugural Mecum Nashville auction runs through Saturday, September 26, at the Lebanon speedway, a short drive east of Mt. Juliet. Starting Thursday, live coverage streams on ESPN+ each day from 10 a.m. Central through the final day, which means a good share of the country will be watching cars roll across a block in Wilson County this weekend.
Who Mecum is, and why that matters
Founded in 1988, Mecum has grown into one of the biggest names in collector cars, vintage motorcycles and what the company calls Road Art, the neon signs, gas pumps and garage memorabilia that fill the walls of every serious car guy's shop. Its signature events are a January sale in Kissimmee, Florida, billed as the largest collector car auction in the world, and a May sale in Indianapolis.
Adding Tennessee to that calendar is a statement about where car culture, and car money, has been moving. Middle Tennessee has spent the past decade drawing collectors, builders and motorsports businesses, and the Superspeedway's size gives an auction room to stretch out into something closer to a festival.
What is crossing the block
The sale is organized around 17 separate collections. The headliner for racing fans is the Roush Automotive Collection, cars tied to Jack Roush, the engineer and team owner whose name has been stamped on Mustangs and stock cars for decades. Johnson's Horsepowered Garage brings custom builds and muscle cars, and the Steve Meadows MSM Global Collection spans more than a century, from brass-era automobiles to classic American muscle.
A few individual cars are drawing their own crowds. A 1968 Shelby GT500KR fastback with a matching-numbers 428 Cobra Jet V-8 is one of the most coveted Mustangs ever built. A 1969 Dodge Daytona hardtop is one of just 503 produced that model year. And at the other end of the timeline sits a 2026 Aston Martin Valhalla, a carbon-bodied hybrid hypercar with 1,064 horsepower and just 174 miles on the clock.
Not just for bidders
You do not need a paddle to enjoy an auction like this. Walking the rows of cars is half the draw, and the track is offering something no hotel ballroom sale can: a NASCAR Racing Experience that puts visitors in the passenger seat of a real race car for three laps around the 1.3-mile oval with a professional driver at the wheel.
The event also carries a charitable thread. Mecum has committed to a significant contribution to Make-A-Wish Middle Tennessee as part of the Nashville debut.
The Superspeedway has become one of Wilson County's busiest gathering places this year. It hosted the Triple Crown of Rodding earlier this month and Foodieland in August, and it has already locked in its 2027 race weekend. Ticket and schedule details for the auction are posted on Mecum's website. If the first Nashville sale performs the way its growth suggests, Mt. Juliet car fans may not have to wait long for the second.
