TERESA M. WALKER Sports Writer.

Nashville grows from ‘not a soccer city’ to hosting Club World Cup matches

Soccer fans in Music City once numbered so few that someone could recognize a car’s driver by the bumper sticker. Now? Don’t wave. Odds are that’s a stranger. Soccer has grown by leaps and bounds from the immigrants who played at a park decades ago through semi-pro ball to teams drawing only a diehard fans. That thirst for soccer helped Nashville go from an outside chance at a Major League Soccer expansion franchise to drawing the biggest crowd to see a match in the state of Tennessee in February 2020. Now Nashville SC will be hosting Club World Cup games at GEODIS Park in June.

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Bubba Wallace puts on his helmet before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race Sunday, June 1, 2025, in Lebanon, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

NASCAR’s new $1M In-season Challenge starts with drivers focused more on winning races

Bubba Wallace sees NASCAR as having all the momentum possible right now with different media partners. Perfect timing then for NASCAR’s In-season Challenge to debut, right? Well, Wallace forgot that was about to debut even as he thinks this will be a way to get fans even more invested. Kyle Larson also didn’t realize NASCAR’s new in-season competition had its field set after the Cup Series race at the Nashville Superspeedway. Larson said he hadn’t seen any promotion of the competition. NASCAR announced this new in-season competition in May 2024. The next three races will seed 32 drivers for the competition starting at Atlanta on June 28.

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Ryan Blaney celebrates after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race Sunday, June 1, 2025, in Lebanon, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Ryan Blaney races to first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the year at Nashville

Ryan Blaney kicked off the second half of the NASCAR season by running away down the stretch for his first Cup Series victory of the year Sunday night at Nashville Superspeedway. The 2023 Cup champ had been racing well with five top-five finishes over the first half of this season. He finally got to victory lane in the No. 12 Ford Mustang for Team Penske for his 14th career victory and first since Martinsville in November. He became the ninth different winner this season and the fifth driver to win in as many races at Nashville.

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