Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday named Erik Moses as its next president for track, making the longtime executive sports and entertainment the first Black man to hold the title in NASCAR.
The 1.33-kilometer concrete track announced plans this summer to reopen in June 2021. It was built in 2001 by Dover Motorsports and was both NASCAR and IndyCar events until 2011, when it was closed to competing events.
Moses ready to bring ‘circus’ to Nashville
Moses said he was welcomed by NASCAR President Steve Phelps, via ESPN, and will be focused on making sure the track is ready.
“Our partnership with NASCAR is for them to set the race and bring the circus to the city,” Moses told ESPN. “Our job is to make sure the big top is ready. Make sure everyone in and around Central Tennessee and the rest of that area understands that we are going to have a Cup Series race and they can look forward to the kind of experience that NASCAR fans expect and deserve. ”
It’s the sister track of Dover International Speedway, which this weekend will host three memorable six races within three days. It will move one of those races to Nashville, where it will spend between $ 8 million and $ 10 million for track improvements, per ESPN.
Moses brings decades of sports, entertainment experience
Erik Moses is the first Black track president in NASCAR. (Photo by Paul Morigi / Getty Images for Atlantic Records)
Moses is the first president of the Black track, while there are more and more calls for the sport to be more inclusive and to deal with diversity.
“Every time you have the distinction of being the first to be professional, it’s a humbling kind of honor,” Moses told The Associated Press. That said, I’m not naive enough to believe I’m the first person of color qualified to run a NASCAR track. I’m grateful [to Dover] for their confidence in my experience and the ability to lead that effort. I am also grateful to the people at NASCAR for their trust in me. I will focus on the job. I’m hired to do a job, not because of what color I am. ”
Moses has decades of experience in the sports and entertainment world around the Washington, DC area. He was most often the founder of the president of the XFL’s DC Defenders, which ranked highest in the league in card sales, game-day experience, and social media engagement, per release.
He also served as senior vice president at Events DC for more than a decade and oversaw the competition and grand opening of Nationals Park while serving as CEO of the DC Sports & Entertainment committee. While there he also helped develop and the Military Bowl and the former AT & T’s Nation Football Classic.
