Nashville’s music scene and the world of racing have been connected for decades. From performer Marty Robbins’ driving career to record mogul Mike Curb’s longtime involvement in all aspects of the sport — including fielding the car for Richard Petty’s 200th victory — Music City has its fingerprints on racing history.
Scott Borchetta is carrying on that rich tradition.
Borchetta, 59, is the founder and CEO of Big Machine Label Group, having launched the flagship Big Machine Records in 2005. Taylor Swift was one of its first artists. Now, across a variety of labels, the company’s roster includes household names like Tim McGraw, Thomas Rhett and Florida Georgia Line, along with dozens of others heard across countless radio stations and Spotify playlists.
In addition, under the Big Machine umbrella is Big Machine Distillery and Big Machine Racing.
“Whether you like our artists or our product or our race cars, it’s all attached,” Borchetta told SPEED SPORT. “None of these things are islands unto themselves; they all touch each other.”
What’s more, Borchetta is an accomplished driver with multiple race wins and championships to his credit.
His involvement in racing goes back to his childhood in Southern California, where he remembers his father taking him and his younger brother, Mark, to early editions of the California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway. Borchetta raced motocross and quarter midgets in his youth but didn’t come from a racing family. His passion for the sport was ignited as he and his brother learned to work on cars and it remained part of his life when he moved to Nashville in 1981.
Borchetta followed his father into the music business and played in bands when he arrived in Tennessee. He eventually found a home working for record labels.
He reconnected with racing in the mid-1990s and started driving Legend Cars while he was at MCA Records. During that era, Brooks & Dunn were competing in Legend Cars and hosting events at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. Around the same time, singer-songwriter Mark Collie also began holding an annual celebrity Legends race on the facility’s quarter-mile track to raise money for diabetes research.
Soon, Borchetta moved up to the SuperTruck division on the five-eighths-mile oval at the Fairgrounds track.
“We started to really dominate in the Legend Cars throughout the Southeast,” Borchetta said. “I was state and regional champion in Legends in ’98, and I thought if we were ever going to move up to the bigger track, that was the time to do it. By that time, I was working at DreamWorks Records and we just went for it. We were doing a lot of racing back then. It seemed like we were doing 18, 20 races a year so we were hard after it.”
Borchetta won three track championships in the SuperTruck division from 2003 to ’05 and was inducted into the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Hall of Fame in 2020.
Borchetta has long been involved with sponsoring both drivers and the popular track. He also kept his SuperTruck operation running for some time after he stepped out of the seat when he left Universal Music Group Nashville to launch Big Machine.
Among Borchetta’s various sponsorship programs at the Nashville Fairgrounds, was putting up $5,000 to win for the headlining pro late model division in the 2010s. The goal was to entice a large car count to compete at the historic facility.
“I wanted to let everybody know that that place really was important to me,” Borchetta said. “When you talk to other drivers, Dale Jr. is so vocal about that place and the first time I met Jimmie Johnson, I told him I was a champion at the Fairgrounds. He goes, ‘Man, when we were running ASA, Nashville was like winning Daytona.’
“Any driver, especially from that era up through the ’90s, early 2000s, they know what an important track Nashville is. It’s on its way to returning to that glory. I’m very confident that Marcus Smith (CEO of Speedway Motorsports) and his team are going to bring NASCAR back to the Fairgrounds. I’m very proud to be in that conversation and supporting it and seeing it grow.”
Big Machine and its various brands have sponsored drivers and events ranging from NASCAR to NHRA to IndyCar and in 2021, Big Machine Racing hit the track in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Nashville driver Jade Buford.
The team has an alliance with Richard Childress Racing, which was expanded significantly for this 2022 season, and fields the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro.
Big Machine brands sponsored Buford in four road course races in 2020, prompting Borchetta to seek full-time sponsorship opportunities for Buford for the following year. However, he soon realized it was a viable option to own the assets of the race team. Plus, he likes to build his businesses himself to put his stamp on their look and feel.
“That’s how I’ve always been most satisfied,” he said.
Borchetta has high hopes for this season with Richard Childress Racing equipment and Buford behind the wheel.
“Last year it was like, ‘All right, let’s see if we can race,’” Borchetta said. “Now this year, I’m saying we’re going racing. We have everything there. When you walk through RCR with Richard Childress, you quickly realize that he leaves nothing for you to want as far as running up front and winning races. It becomes on the teams and drivers because he’s giving you everything you need to run up front. That excites me. Not to sound cliché, but I love winners and Richard is a winner of the highest order.”
Borchetta first met his driver Buford during a track day at Circuit of The Americas in Austin and soon developed a friendship with the road course ace. Buford has served as a co-driver and driver coach as he’s become an integral part of Borchetta’s recent run of success in the Sportscar Vintage Racing Ass’n.
Among Borchetta’s many accolades and titles with the series are a staggering 22 wins in a 1969 Corvette en route to the Group 6 championship in 2021. He also has recently begun competing in the TA2 class of the Trans-Am Series and will take on SVRA as well as the full Trans-Am schedule this year.
Among the races on the TA2 calendar is the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, part of the race weekend in downtown Nashville that’s highlighted by the NTT IndyCar Series.
The event, which includes Borchetta in its ownership group, was first held last August. As the city has grown in worldwide popularity thanks to the proliferation of country music on a global scale, and Nashville’s ubiquitous appearance in pop culture, Borchetta believes the event makes perfect sense.
“It’s a very easy city to fall in love with,” Borchetta said. “The way that it’s blowing up downtown, to plug in another huge event with the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix was a natural. People are looking for reasons to come to Nashville and that gives them one other weekend.”
Big Machine’s spirit offerings also play a significant role in the event and across the entirety of the company’s racing endeavors. Big Machine Vodka Spiked Coolers appears on the team’s race cars, while Big Machine Platinum Filtered Premium Vodka has adorned quarter panels, sidepods and race names for multiple seasons.
With music evolving to appear primarily on digital platforms, Borchetta acquired what is now Big Machine Distillery in 2015 with the desire to produce a physical product.
Borchetta’s business acumen is apparent as he’s blended his passion for racing with music and spirit brands, noting they all are related to entertainment and experiences. Often the three industries are intertwined, with an example being the popular festival-like grand prix weekend.
“Everybody here has learned lessons, in the last 10 years especially, that you have to offer more than just a race,” Borchetta said. “I joked about this last year. I said, ‘Come to the race weekend. I don’t care if you see a lap.’ I hope you do, because as a race fan I would personally be watching every lap. But there will be people who come to town who have a great time that weekend and they might not even see (one). But they were there for the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, they had a great time, and guess what, they’re coming back and they told their friends.”
During the event, race cars traverse the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge spanning the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville. Fittingly, it provides a visual representation of the city’s connection to motorsports.
Borchetta himself is a bridge between the region’s rich racing past and its bright future as well. For instance, he owns two of Marty Robbins’ race cars and has won in one of them. He is also neighbors with Mike Curb, and the two were part of Dan Wheldon’s Indy 500-winning effort in 2011.
Now, through his involvement with the Nashville Fairgrounds, Big Machine Racing and the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, among other projects, Borchetta is at the forefront of the current generation with ties to both Nashville and the motorsports world.
However, he doesn’t think much about the legacy he’s building.
“I think if we really put our heads down and just try to do the best work every day, whether it’s our label, the spirits, racing, that comes back to you,” he said. “If there is a legacy that’s what I’d want it to be. Just like, ‘Wow, they did great stuff, and they did it at the highest level.’ That would be it because really, what more can