History will be made this weekend when NASCAR races at Nashville Superspeedway, where the track will host its first Cup Series event on Sunday.
The Ally 400 race starts at 3:30 p.m. on NBCSN.
The 1.33-mile concrete oval held Xfinity and Truck Series races between 2001 and 2011, and delivered memorable moments that live on in the sport’s highlight reels, including a pre-race invocation by pastor Joe Nelms in which he thanked God for “the Dodges and the Toyotas” and his “smokin’ hot wife” while drivers snickered on the starting grid.
Nashville was also home to Kyle Busch’s infamous guitar smash in 2009, which has been referenced often on social media this week as the driver prepares to make his return to the track in the Cup Series. After Busch won a 2009 Nationwide Series race, he promptly demolished his trophy — a Les Paul Gibson guitar hand-painted by NASCAR artist Sam Bass. Busch intentionally smashed his prize on the ground in Victory Lane to break off pieces for his team members, but the incident caused controversy.
Busch will have another shot at a guitar smash this weekend. The winning trophy will be a Bass-inspired Gibson guitar to honor the artist who died in 2019.
“Without question it’s important to maintain the tradition of a Music City-made Gibson guitar for our race winners,” Nashville Superspeedway president Erik Moses said. “While everyone misses Sam and we could never recreate what he offered to our track champions, we are thrilled to rekindle our partnership with Gibson and to award their timeless guitars to our race winners.”
NASCAR and Nashville are also pulling out the stops to highlight the city’s honky-tonk and entertainment roots. Country music star Chris Janson will perform a pre-race concert on Sunday along with John Anderson, and musical artists CeCe Winans, Luke Combs, Priscilla Block and Brandon Lay will be part of pre-race ceremonies across three days of racing.
It will be a jam-packed weekend with practice and qualifying for all three national series. Here is the weekend schedule for NASCAR at Nashville (all times are Eastern).
NASCAR at Nashville schedule
Friday, June 18
11:05 a.m. Trucks practice (50 minutes) on FS2
4:05 p.m. Xfinity practice (50 minutes) on NBCSN
5:05 p.m. Trucks qualifying (single vehicle, one lap) on FS2
8 p.m. Truck Series race at Nashville (199.5 miles, 150 laps with stages ending on Laps 45, 90, 150) on FS1
Saturday, June 19
12:35 p.m. Xfinity qualifying (single vehicle, one lap) on FS2
2:05 p.m. Cup practice (50 minutes) on NBCSN
3:30 p.m. Xfinity Series race at Nashville (250.04 miles, 188 laps with stages ending on Laps 45, 90 and 188) on NBCSN
Sunday, June 20
11:05 a.m. Cup qualifying (single vehicle, one lap) on NBCSN
3:30 p.m. Cup Series race at Nashville (399 miles, 300 laps with stages ending on Laps 90, 185 and 300) on NBCSN