Nashville Superspeedway puts speedster, James Ham, back on track for 25th anniversary

The Nashville Superspeedway celebrated its 25th anniversary on June 25, paying tribute to Nashville’s rich NASCAR racing history by putting one of the area’s fastest drivers of all time back on the track.

Track officials invited former NASCAR driver James Ham, once known as the “Fastest Man on Four Wheels,” to run hot laps on the 1.33-mile concrete track. Ham was a star in the heyday of the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. He set the track’s lap speed record at 123.085 miles per hour in 1971. It was narrowly broken in 1972 by Charlie Binkley, who still owns the record at 123.558 mph.

Ham, now 83, still likes to drive fast and has a car built for speed. So the folks at Nashville Superspeedway decided to give him that opportunity in Ham’s red 1994 Corvette with several of his closest fans and Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway supporters cheering him on.

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“With this being the 25th anniversary of Nashville Superspeedway, it was important for us to embrace our history of everyone who has made a contribution to motorsports in Middle Tennessee,” said Nashville Superspeedway director of marketing and communications Alan George. “There’s no better way to pay tribute to everything that James has done than to have him out here for a great afternoon like this.”

Track officials were naturally concerned about Ham having a heavy foot on the throttle, so they had the NASCAR Cup Cracker Barrel 400 Ford Mustang pace car keep him in check. Even with the pace car in front, Ham flirted with 100 mph on the concrete track with 14-degree banking in the turns, 9-degree banking on the frontstretch, and 6-degree banking on the backstretch.

“This is a good racetrack to drive,” Ham said. “It’s got enough bank on it. It’s not like Martinsville or Hickory or places like that, where it’s flat, and you’ve got to really be careful driving it. With this track with the banks, you can let the car roll into the turns and it’ll adhere itself into the turns. It’ll let you go as fast as you want to go.”

The average speed track record at Nashville Superspeedway was set by former NASCAR driver Aric Almirola at 161.992 mph in 2021.

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“I can see someone driving that fast here for sure,” Ham said. “I went high and low because I wanted to see how the grooves were. If you can stay high, it keeps the car’s momentum going. If you stay low, it will bind the car. Bobby Allison helped me at Daytona, telling me, ‘Don’t run low; keep it about middle ways, and it won’t bind.’ I found that here.”

Ham had let officials at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway know he would like to spin his wheels at Nashville Superspeedway, which did not open until after he retired.

“James is a great ambassador and has got many laps going around the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway,” said Nashville Fairgrounds operations manager Gary Neal. “It was his dream to drive on this track. It’s great that we’re all good partners and (Nashville Superspeedway general manager) Matt Greci and Alan George are friends of our track and made it happen.”

Ham still attends as many races at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway as possible. He will be there on June 28 for the Pro Late Model 100, the sixth race of the 2026 season at the historic track.

Ham said the fastest he ever went at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway was in 1973 in the Uniroyal 100 when he got mixed up with Dave Marcis and crashed into the wall on Turn 4. Ham’s car burst into flames as he bailed out. Ham estimated he was going 145 mph before hitting the wall.

“That’s not how you want to set a record,” Ham said.

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Racing great James Ham celebrates Nashville Superspeedway anniversary