NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Scott Borchetta has always recognized talent when he has seen it, or when he has heard it.
Before he created Big Machine Label Group, he met a 14-year-old girl from Pennsylvania in 2004. Borchetta believed in her talent and signed her as Big Machine’s first client in 2005.
It was Taylor Swift, who has since become the world’s most famous entertainer, selling out shows all over the world and the winner of 14 Grammy Awards, including two Grammy Awards for Album of the Year for “Fearless” in 2010 and “1989" in 2016 with Big Machine Label Group.
Although Swift would eventually leave Big Machine in a well-publicized dispute over retaining ownership rights to her songs, the company remains one of the most successful entertainment companies in the industry.
But Scott Borchetta is a racer at heart.
The entertainment industry is Borchetta’s career, but auto racing is his passion.
This weekend’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway is the final race of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season and will decide the championship.
In many ways, it’s Borchetta’s passion project.
Facing one obstacle after another, from having to make the difficult decision to move the race off the streets of Nashville in February to dealing with the potential remnants of Hurricane Francine that could impact some of the on-track action, Borchetta is moving full-speed ahead.
Nashville is one of the great entertainment cities in the world and has boomed in popularity to the point where every night in the Broadway district, its Honky Tonks are filled with people there to party.
Although the race is a 35-minute drive to the east in Lebanon, Tennessee, Borchetta has kept the entertainment focus of the weekend in the heart of Music City, USA.
“I guess we just don’t do anything half-ass,” Borchetta told NBCSports.com. “We are involved with IndyCar, of course, and NASCAR. I’m on the board of the Fairgrounds Museum Hall of Fame here in Nashville. I’m on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum board.
“Outside of music and racing, I’m probably not that knowledgeable about much, but it’s in my DNA. I also want to lift things up and make them as good as they can be. It’s just a drive and a passion that I have.
“So many times over the years, something really interesting happens when you take somebody to a race for the first time, so they either completely fall in love with it or, ‘eh.’
“I’m OK with that because the ones that fall in love with it are all in. And the ones who aren’t, it’s like no big deal.
“But the people who get this bug, once you have this racing bug, there’s no way to get rid of it.”
Borchetta took over control of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, a race that had been on the streets of Nashville winding around Nissan Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League. A wild street race that began in 2021, it was popular with the fans, who came to the race to party and see Indy cars race around the streets.
But with a new stadium under construction, most of those streets are unavailable until that project is completed.
The race was traditionally in late July or early August, but last year IndyCar and the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix decided to make it the championship finale.
What better way to celebrate an IndyCar Championship than on Broadway in Nashville with the 2024 IndyCar champion presented with the Astor Cup in front of thousands of cheering fans?
This is where Borchetta’s biggest obstacle presented itself.
“The Titans have been great partners to the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix,” Borchetta explained to NBCSports.com in an exclusive interview. “That has been central to our operations for the first three years. And they made it very clear that, ‘We are breaking ground on the new stadium in February. And you won’t be able to use this footprint.’
“In trying to navigate how we could continue to race downtown, starting to look at all the traps, the fact that this year, having the IndyCar championship here follows the second week of the NFL regular season.”
The Titans made a request to the NFL to either have that weekend off, or to send the Titans on the road so the area around the stadium could be used for the race.
“Burke Nihill, the president of the Titans, was very clear,” Borchetta recalled. “He said, ‘Scott, look, I’ve asked for that weekend to be an away game, but at the end of the day the NFL is going to do what the NFL does.’
“OK, noted.
“Then, I’m meeting with the mayor, and he said ‘Scott with all due respect if there’s a home game there is no way you can shut down a Korean War Vets bridge which is central to the downtown footprint whether we’re racing around the stadium or racing around the city.
“That, and a ton of other challenges with paving expense in the millions of dollars and a lot of other challenges and a lot of things that hadn’t really been addressed by prior management with downtown businesses created an issue.”
Borchetta contacted IndyCar. Then he took quick action to keep the race in the Nashville area at nearby Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tennessee.
“I flew over to meet with Marcus Smith at SMI and said, ‘How would you like to host the IndyCar championship?’” Borchetta said. “And he couldn’t say yes fast enough.
“So, we made the decision. It was a massive decision. A ton of work. But I got to tell you, there was no way for us to find out when that Titans game was going to fall if we’re going to have a home game or an away game.
“I checked with my friends at the Dallas Cowboys and other NFL teams, and they checked around and said ‘Scott, nobody will know until May 16 (when the NFL announces its full regular season schedule).’
“This is late February, and I cannot wait.
“Thank God we did, because there is a home game this year on the same day as our race. And had we tried to continue to roll it downtown, I would have had more egg on my face than you could imagine because I would have had to tell everybody that the race is canceled, that we would not be racing in Nashville this year.
“By the time you get to mid-May, there’s no way to move it out to the Superspeedway.
“While it’s been a tough decision and all that, it was absolutely the right one.”
NBCSports.com talked to Smith before the Quaker State 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the chairman of Speedway Motorsports is a solid proponent in helping make Nashville “Race City USA.”
“Scott Borchetta is a great friend and really a great friend to all of motorsports,” Smith told NBCSports.com. “He loves Indy, he loves NASCAR. He and I have been friends for a number of years.
“When he called me about it, I loved the idea of being able to host with him. We talked to IndyCar about it, I asked my team about it, and we all rallied around the idea to help make IndyCar and Nashville a success.”
Smith understands the difficulty of working around the NFL schedule. SMI tracks are also located in Dallas/Fort Worth, Charlotte, North Carolina, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Nashville, all markets with NFL teams.
Last week in Atlanta, there was a NASCAR race, the Atlanta Braves were playing a home game and the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons were kicking off their season at home.
On Sunday, it’s the Titans playing a home game in Nashville.
“We have a lot of markets with NFL teams and when you are in a big market whether it’s Dallas, Nashville, Charlotte, Atlanta, there are so many things going on, you have to deal with the various challenges,” Smith said. “Our No. 1 concern around weather. We want to be at the best time to have an outdoor event. We are pulling for the best fan experience.”
Of course, nobody could anticipate what is left of a hurricane coming through Tennessee, but the forecast for the weekend is improving dramatically as the storm system is west, over Memphis.
Since making the call to Smith, Borchetta has moved full speed ahead to make the best of the situation. He will continue to involve the Broadway area of Nashville to activate the race with big-name concerts and entertainment featuring some of the biggest names from Big Machine Records. That includes a takeover of downtown on Broadway on Friday, Sept. 13.
“The great thing about Nashville is you don’t need an excuse for a party,” Borchetta said. “We’re putting Brantley Gilbert’s new album out that day, so he’ll be playing on a huge stage between Fourth and Fifth Avenue. We’ll be shut down all the way from Fifth down to the river and his new album, ‘Tattoos’ drops that day so we’re billing this as the ‘World’s Largest Album Release Party.’
“It’s our fourth annual ‘Freedom Friday’ concert as well, so we’ll be honoring the military and working with General Keith M. Huber again. We’re keeping the aesthetic of Nashville very much in touch with the Grand Prix and then out of the super speedway, we’ve got a ton of great music as well.
“Riley Green is headlining the post-race champion’s concert. Daughtry will play pre-race on the front stretch, and Diplo is going to be the Grand Marshal for the race.
“We’ve got entertainment coming at you from every angle, and it’s going to be a great weekend.”
On Saturday, the action then shifts to Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon. The 1.33-mile concrete oval returns to the NTT IndyCar Series schedule for the first time since the Firestone Indy 200 on July 12, 2008.
IndyCar will be the main attraction as the drivers remaining in the battle for the championship will conclude the season in the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on Sunday, Sept. 15.
With all the entertainment and activation in downtown Nashville, though, how will that lure people to Nashville Superspeedway to actually participate and be part of the IndyCar season finale will determine the championship?
“The irony is it’s only about 35 minutes away from downtown,” Borchetta explained. “And for anyone who has gone to the Indy 500, you can be 3 miles away, and it takes an hour and a half to get in. So, it’s not really that far.
“Some of the things we’ve done around town is creatively, I’m really proud of this, we’ve got billboards up and depending on where you are, if you’re in Brentwood, we have a billboard that says at 204 miles an hour, you’re only seven minutes away.
“Psychologically, it’s a lot of fun, but it’s also saying, hey, it’s not that far away. It’s very much connected to Nashville.
“I think keeping the music and all the activations out at the Superspeedway is definitely going to feel like Nashville.
“We have a huge TV campaign, huge billboard, huge socials, radio. We’ve attacked all media to make sure everybody knows about the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, and we are the season finale. It has been a full-frontal attack.
“We have left no stone unturned.”
Nashville Superspeedway has room for 30,000 fans including the main grandstand, tower suite and pit lane suites. Borchetta believes the crowd will be in the “high 20,000s.”
“Selling out Sunday is not out of the question,” Borchetta said.
Although the shift from Broadway in Nashville and the visuals of racing past the Honky Tonks in the entertainment district, to the concrete oval in rural Middle Tennessee may affect the big-city buzz, the true racing fans in IndyCar are excited to see the season end on an oval for the first time since 2014.
“When you are a fan of IndyCar and if you’ve been to a street course or an oval, as far as the actual fan experience, the oval is so much easier to navigate,” Borchetta explained. “You can see the track from just about any seat.
“Nothing against running downtown, that was a great experience but for a fan experience, but it was a bit challenging to navigate the whole footprint. The excitement has been there for the fans who want to see it’s back on ovals and end the season on oval and the fact that we’re the season finale for the foreseeable future just makes this race that much more important.
“I think the fans are understanding that.”
Of the 27 drivers who will be in the final race of the season, only three were in the most recent IndyCar race at Nashville Superspeedway on July 12, 2008. Scott Dixon was the winner, Will Power was driving for KV Racing Technology and finished 11th. Graham Rahal was a very young driver at Newman Haas Lanigan and finished 12th.
NASHVILLE, TN - JULY 12: Scott Dixon, driver of the #9 Energizer Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara Honda celebrates with second place teammate Dan Wheldon (L) and third place finisher Helio Castroneves after winning the IRL IndyCar Series Firestone Indy 200 on July 12, 2008 at the Nashville SuperSpeedway in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Darrell Ingham/Getty Images)
Scott Dixon celebrates with the guitar trophy after winning at Nashville in 2008 — Getty Images
Dixon led 53 laps that day and defeated his then Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dan Wheldon by 1.0680 seconds.
“It’s great to be back,” Dixon told NBCSports.com. “It had been 16 years since we had been back there. The track itself hadn’t really changed much being a concrete surface, but the landscape really changed. Everything around it is packed with Amazon buildings.
“Scott Borchetta, as we all know, is a machine, man. It’s great to see him in action. It’s great to see what he has done with what he was dealt with the Nashville Grand Prix.
“Huge kudos to him and his people to make this happen. I think everybody hopes to get this back to Nashville in 2027 once that stadium construction is completed.
“It was easier to do the activation downtown because that is where we were racing. It’s important for the series. It’s important for the building of it and will be important when we go back to downtown. There will be a lot of activation for the teams and parties. We are still staying downtown. Most of the teams are.
“It’s people watching. It’s a lot of fun. People are coming from all over the world, from New Zealand, friends and family, they are coming to the Nashville race. It’s a destination everyone wants to get to.
“Hopefully, it will drum up some interest and they will make the short 35-minute drive to the superspeedway.”
Two-time and back-to-back Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden is from Nashville. Although he won’t be in the thick of the battle for the championship, he is excited to see the season culminate with a big-time event near his hometown.
“I think that being downtown is going to be great across the weekend,” Newgarden told NBCSports.com. “There are a lot of activities that are that are already scheduled to take place that people can get involved in. I think the pit stop competition is going to be the biggest one on Broadway.
“It’s a great town. Nashville is somewhere we need to be as a series, and I’m happy that we’re going to be finishing our schedule there.
“It’s close proximity to pretty much the entire Midwest. You know, it’s not difficult to sell people on coming to Nashville. So, I think it’s a win -win in a lot of ways.”
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MAY 26: Josef Newgarden, driver of the #2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske, celebrates in Victory Circle after winning the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 26, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
Justin Casterline/Getty Images
The last time the championship was decided on an oval, Power won the championship at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana in 2014. He clinched his second IndyCar title two years ago at WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California.
He remains in competition for a third championship heading into the homestretch of IndyCar’s season.
Power trails IndyCar points leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing by 33 points heading into the weekend.
“I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Scott for taking the ball and running with it because obviously that street course was a fantastic race,” Power told NBCSports.com. “But then to be promoting the oval like he is, I think we’ll have a big crowd, and it should be a good race for us.”
The Big Machine Music City Grand Prix will remain at Nashville Superspeedway for the next three years because of construction on the new stadium for the Tennessee Titans. Borchetta intends to return to the streets of Nashville once that is completed.
As for the NFL schedule, the race will be safe because beginning next season with the new television contract between IndyCar and FOX Sports, the IndyCar season will conclude on Labor Day Weekend – one week before the NFL begins its regular season.
“It would be great to have it back downtown,” Borchetta said. “That’s the hope.
“But we’re racing at the Nashville Superspeedway for the next three years, and that’s the event we’ve got to make happen for now.”
The 62-year-old has been a “star maker” for most of his life. He has always recognized talent and has promoted some of the biggest concerts in the industry.
He is using that promotional flare as a race promoter with the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix.
“I’ve always look at talent is talent whether you are a musician, an actor, an athlete. There are certain conversations. There is a certain way to work with those people to make sure you are helping them maximize their talent.
“I look at it really pretty much the same. Talent is talent. And then what are we marketing? What’s the new album? What’s the message? What’s the race?
“Well, the race is the championship race and it’s in the most exciting city in the world right now.
“So, it’s really what is the talent and what’s the story you want to tell?
“There are a lot of things that intersect because we have so many of our new artists involved, not only Brantley Gilbert and Riley Green and Daughtry, but we also have a lot of our new artists we are showcasing all over.
“So, whether it’s Chase McDaniel or Mae Estes or McKenzie Carpenter or Noah Hicks or Shay Lynn, Brian Kelly, Gary LeVox, there’s a lot of conversation and it gets down to entertainment.
“The record label is its own behemoth, but we’re 19 years old. I’ve got wonderful people who understand the daily operation, daily mission.”
Borchetta is also creating a new direction for the IndyCar race in Nashville.
“We’re building out a new Grand Prix Management team because this wasn’t planned,” Borchetta continued. “This was not pre-meditated. I did this to save the race. Otherwise, the race was not going to happen. Maybe it happens in a different construct, but I made the decision to charge forward.
“We brought in some great people. I won’t have as much of a leadership roles in day to day in future years. They’ll still report up to me, but I’m bringing some great people to operate it so I can just cover it 50,000 feet.”
Borchetta’s father, who is still alive, was also involved in the entertainment industry.
“I realized that is where I was supposed to be,” Borchetta said. “It’s been a very natural thing for me to just be in the business and be part of. Because I was growing up around it, I already knew the conversation. I already knew the mechanisms of how it works and understanding what a hit song is. That’s always evolving and changing, but there’s still foundational things that are constants.
“So, it’s fair to say that I was pretty much born into it.”
Borchetta is equally as proud of his love for racing as his accomplishments in the entertainment industry. His first competitive race was BMX at Soledad Sands in Saugus, California as a youngster.
But he’ll never forget his first auto race as a spectator.
“The first race I ever attended was the first California 500 in 1970 at Ontario Motor Speedway in California,” Borchetta said. “That race will forever be in my DNA. To this day, my Scott Borchetta Racing logo still has a lightning bolt to honor Al Unser and Johnny Lightning because that car as a little boy, me and my brother were fascinated.
“It was Al Unser and Bobby Unser and Mark (Borchetta, his brother) and Scott.
“I have a really neat piece from that race. Gigi Garner, who was the late James Garner’s daughter, I became friends with her over the last several years. James was the grand marshal of that first California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway, he got a helmet that everybody signed. Dan Gurney, AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti, the Unsers, Johnny Rutherford. Everybody signed it.
“She gave me that helmet. So, I have that full circle moment in my collection of that was my very first race and here are all the guys who drove in it, and this is the helmet they all signed.
“It’s a pretty cool piece.
“Most of the drivers who autographed that helmet aren’t around any more.”
UNITED STATES - SEPTEMBER 08: 1970 California 500 - Ontario MotorSpeedway. Al Unser of the (Vel Miletich) Vel’s Parnelli Jones team stands around by the pits. Unser would qualify for the race fourth on the grid and lead for a 166 of the 200 laps. However on lap 186 a failed transmission would result in his DNF, but he still managed a ninth place result due to other retirements before him. (Photo by Fred Enke/The Enthusiast Network via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Al Unser at the 1970 California 500 — The Enthusiast Network via Getty Images
That’s the day Borchetta caught the “racing bug.” He’s been afflicted with it ever since.
This weekend in the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, he hopes that bug spreads, creating new fans for a sport he loves.
“If you’re a race fan, and that’s why we really focus on getting young people out to the races, because there’s that moment in time where you don’t ever forget your first concert,” Borchetta said. “If we do it right, you’ll never forget your first race.
“That’s something we’re very cognitive and very specific with intent to, it’s like bring your kids, because they’ll never forget this.
“Come and hang with us. I promise you’re going to have a great time. The racing looks like it’s going to be fantastic.
We’re going to crown a champion, and the music’s going to be off the hook.”