While NASCAR is racing in corn country this weekend at Iowa Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway is on deck to host a Field of Dreams-caliber event of its own.
In a matchup where baseball meets motorsports, the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds will clash inside the confines of the “Last Great Colosseum” this Saturday, Aug. 2, in the MLB Speedway Classic presented by BuildSubmarines.com (7:15 p.m. ET, FOX), the first MLB game ever played in the state of Tennessee.
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“We love hosting the races that we host, but it’s always fun to showcase our facility in a different light, and we’ve done that with football, and now we’re thrilled to be able to do that with Major League Baseball,” Jerry Caldwell, president of Bristol, told NASCAR.com. “They’ve been great to work with. We’re blessed with a world-class team within Speedway Motorsports and at Bristol Motor Speedway. And then you couple that team with the team that Major League Baseball has assembled, and it’s really putting together something special, and I can’t wait for folks to get here and see it and just be wowed.”
With the event, Bristol continues to expand its non-racing resume. In addition to hosting a National Football League exhibition between Philadelphia and Washington in 1961, the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile” laid the gridiron for the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech during the “Battle at Bristol” in 2016, which drew 156,990 spectators, an NCAA football record.
Bristol’s attendance muscle will again be flexed this weekend, with MLB announcing that more than 85,000 tickets have been sold for the event, surpassing the previous record of 84,587 set on Sept. 12, 1954, when Cleveland Stadium hosted the New York Yankees.
Any collaboration of this magnitude requires plenty of planning, and the MLB Speedway Classic is no exception. Soft demolition of several walls and buildings began May 27, with the property being turned over to MLB and associated partners and vendors June 23. Roughly 100-150 workers were involved in the demolition process, while a crew of approximately 400 was responsible for building the baseball infield.
Plenty of material went into the effort, too, including 340 tons of infield clay, 450 wall pads (based on MLB’s London Series build), 17,500 tons of rock, 80,000 square feet of backstop netting, 124,000 square feet of Diamond Series AstroTurf (the same turf type utilized by Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays) and much more. The final product? A Bristol diamond with dimensions spanning from 330 feet down both foul lines to 400 feet dead center.
“It’s kind of dreaming up this concept and saying, what if?” Caldwell said regarding the event, which has been years in the making. “Then we get computer renderings of what it could look like, and then now we’re showing pictures of what it really is like, and you’re seeing all that stuff come together. It’s a great sense of accomplishment and fun for me to see and for our team just because our teams work so hard on it, getting everyone to see this kind of work of art, almost, that they’ve created.”
Baseball players have taken notice, with “Talladega Nights”-inspired catching gear, racing-centric uniforms and simulator attempts all the rage. While NASCAR drivers continue their regular-season push at Iowa, they, too, recognize just how significant an event like this can be in getting more eyeballs on Bristol and NASCAR as a whole.
“A lot of baseball fans are going to go to Bristol and be like, man, this is wild. I can’t imagine they race on the banking and stuff like this. And hopefully, they come back for a race,” Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe said. “And even for the players, I know that I was able to do some stuff with the Reds. And even Elly De La Cruz (Reds’ shortstop), right? He was racing around the track, and he was so intrigued by it. So hopefully, we can get some more of those guys to the race track. I think the more we can do that kind of stuff just helps you know push all this in the right direction.”
“Any time you can introduce yourself and expose yourself to new fans and create new opportunities, great, and I think we’ve done a good job of doing that with a lot of different opportunities, whether (Clash at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum), whether it’s street races, whether it’s going to cities, going to different places, engaging in other sports and engaging with other athletes,” Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell said. “I feel like that’s a big part of just overall growing our brand as a NASCAR brand.”
The MLB Speedway Classic isn’t the only major event on Bristol’s docket. After all, the 0.533-mile short track will host all three of NASCAR’s national series in September, headlined by the Bass Pro Shops Night Race as the Round of 16 elimination race in the Cup Series Playoffs (Sept. 13, 7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). According to Caldwell, the process to transition the facility back to a race track is already in motion. Approximately 200 crew members from MLB, along with 90-100 from Bristol, will aid in the dismantling process of the baseball field.
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“We’ve got to make sure we’re keeping our eye on the ball, and we can do that,” Caldwell said. “There are lots of major facilities that host huge events weeks apart, and we’re going to be able to do that, but it takes a tremendous amount of planning, a tremendous amount of cooperation, and that’s what we’ve done. … From the partners with Major League Baseball, understanding that we have to get ready for the race, and then partners that we’re going to bring in that are from the construction space that will help us execute as we head towards the playoff race, and we’ll be ready, but it’s really just a tremendous amount of planning and making sure we’re all on the same page.”
At a venue with plenty of history, “Thunder Valley” will have another vaulted chapter written in its annals, and whether as a regular or first-timer, the MLB Speedway Classic will be a wonder under the lights for all in attendance.
Batter up.
“It’s one of those places you have to see to believe it,” Caldwell said about Bristol. “It’s a football stadium or baseball stadium on steroids, if you will. But you really want to get in and just take in the magnitude of the place. Enjoy every aspect of it. Walk around the facility. Make sure you see it from different angles. It’s in a beautiful part of the country, but it’s also just an amazing facility to think that this is built in Bristol, Tennessee, and is one of the largest spectator facilities in the country and in the world.”
