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Since last week’s announcement that the 2024 season finale for the NTT IndyCar Series has been moved from the streets of downtown Nashville to Nashville Superspeedway; I’ve received many calls, texts and e-mails asking me where to stay. Since I am a native Tennessean and have been a local resident of Nashville for close to a quarter-century – I suppose I am considered the local expert. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

Think about it. How often do you visit your local tourist attractions? I lived in Memphis for a total of ten years, and never went to Graceland. I went to Beale Street once in that time. I grew up less than two hours from Nashville and have lived here since 2001. I finally visited the Ryman Auditorium in 2012, when Susan and I went to a concert there. We’ve not been back since. Our good friend, Paul Dalbey from Fieldof33.com came to visit us in 2015. He insisted on the three of us attending the Grand Ole Opry. We had never been, and after one visit – I know why. I’m pretty confident in saying, we’ll never go back.

I have a much better idea on where the good hotels are in Indianapolis and near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin; than I do in Nashville. Unless you’re having an affair, I’m not sure many would know where the best value in hotels are in your city.

I’m also not up on the nightlife or where the latest and greatest dining options are in Nashville. When I was carousing the bars of Nashville, it was during my college days at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville – three hours to the east. That was in the 70s, when I would come to visit friends that lived here. Probably 95% of those hot spots are long gone. The best ones have been leveled and redeveloped into banks and strip shopping-centers. Susan and I are 65 years-old now. We don’t go to bars at all, and visit very few restaurants. To show how boring our dining habits have become; do you know where we went to eat dinner on Valentine’s last week? Cracker Barrel.

But if you’ve never been to Nashville or are unfamiliar with anything away from Broadway, I do travel the geographic area for work on a very frequent basis.

When people ask me where to stay when attending a race at Nashville Superspeedway, that answer is also not that simple. It depends on what you are looking for.

My short answer is if you already had reservations at the Omni or JW Marriott downtown – change them. Those places are incredibly expensive, even on an off-weekend. For whatever reason, Nashville has become to destination of choice for bachelorette party weekends. For that and many other reasons, I avoid downtown like the plague on weekends. I’m not too fond of going there during the week in work hours, but sometimes I have to. That has nothing to do with age. I would’ve felt the same way thirty years ago. It’s just way too much of a hassle.

Nashville Superspeedway is located in Wilson County, one county to the east from Nashville’s Davidson County. If you’ve been to the Music City Grand Prix before, you obviously know where the Titan’s Nissan Stadium is, on the east bank of the Cumberland River. Nashville Superspeedway is exactly 34.3 miles to the east on I-40, then I-840. That’s a pretty good haul, if you are intent on staying downtown for the nightlife – plus the expense and the hassle of parking. If you had planned on taking Uber for everything associated with the downtown race, you’ll now need a car.

I have posted a satellite map of Nashville Superspeedway, and it’s proximity to various parts of the area. The track itself is located in Gladeville, TN. No offense to the fine 1,200 or so folks that live in Gladeville, but there is not much there. I’m not sure there is a single hotel or sit-down restaurant in Gladeville. That’s why I’ve posted a map. I have circled a few of the areas I’ll discuss below.

If I was wanting to have access to the many things that Nashville has to offer, but also wanted to be a little closer to the track – I’d stay in the Airport/Donelson area. The area is filled with medium-priced hotels, practically every major chain restaurant in existence and a few decent local spots. Given its proximity to the airport and downtown, this is where many business travelers stay. Parking is in abundance, and it’s in a relatively safe area. You are less than 20 minutes from all of the nightlife on Broadway, and about 35 minutes from the track.

If the Nashville bar scene doesn’t interest you, but you’d like to be staying in a very civilized area with plenty of decent hotels and restaurants – you might consider Mt. Juliet (population 40,000), which is in Wilson County off of I-40 going toward the track. One thing to remember – don’t pronounce Juliet like one of the main characters from “Romeo & Juliet”. You’ll confuse the locals. Here, the town is pronounced “Mount JOOL-yet”. Mt. Juliet is an up and coming area, where many Nashville residents are moving to escape high property values and taxes. Many new hotels, shopping areas and restaurants have popped up there in the past few years. Mt. Juliet will put you about 25 minutes from the track

If you don’t mind being away from Nashville, but want even more hotels and restaurants to choose from and be even closer to the track (about 20 minutes); you might consider heading down I-24 from Nashville and staying in Murfreesboro (population 152,000), in Rutherford County. Murfreesboro is home to Middle Tennessee State University, and has a wide range of hotels to choose from. When IndyCar was running at Nashville Superspeedway from 2001 to 2008, most of the teams stayed in Murfreesboro.

Finally, if the only thing you care about is being close to the track, you might look at Lebanon, TN (population 38,000), which is east of the track off of I-40. Lebanon is best known for being the home of Cracker Barrel. There are some reasonably priced (read: cheap) hotels there. Dining options are limited to places like Applebee’s, Panda Express and a few local eateries. Most listings for Nashville Superspeedway say the track is located in Lebanon, instead of Gladeville, but it’s still about 15 minutes to the track from Lebanon.

As a public service, I’ve also included a facility map of the track. Unlike the downtown race, parking is plentiful – even if you have to walk a little bit. Under the old ownership twenty years ago, parking was free. I’m not sure about now. If camping is your thing, you can see there are plenty of campsites available right next to the track.

I would recommend booking reservations early, before the hotels raise their rates. I’ve had many tell me that they originally had no plans to attend the season finale, just because they had no interest in battling the congestion in downtown Nashville. Now that the race has been removed to the remote area of Wilson County, that is no longer an issue. This race has suddenly become more attractive to attend – especially among older folks like us, who no longer have interest in the night life.

Start planning your trip now. September will be here before you know it.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on February 19, 2024 at 4:04 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.