Bristol Motor Speedway has made some special headlines this year. The Food City 500 race generated waves of thrill and excitement, due to an unexpected tire management dilemma. Denny Hamlin and other veterans swerved to the front row while others faltered. Now the track is making the front page yet again as it shuttles towards a unique event next year.

The Busch Light Clash race was held at the Los Angeles Coliseum, a multipurpose stadium for different sports. Now Bristol is prepared to take its stead – instead of hosting high-powered race cars, the track would host muscular bat-wielding players. And the results can be spectacular, as a NASCAR expert agrees.

Bristol Motor Speedway to host a crowd-puller

Ever since the track saw the light of day more than 60 years ago, it has been a sensation. Bristol Motor Speedway has hosted some of NASCAR’s most exciting races, as it is quite an unusual track. The half-mile concrete oval has enormous banking, making it an ultra-fast short track with multiple grooves. The thrilling races are complemented by roaring crowds – the wraparound stadium seating holds a capacity of around 150,000 people. Now those people would grab their popcorn buckets for a different kind of event.

Speedway Motorsports, the owner of the Bristol track, and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred are set to announce an MLB game at the track in 2025. The competing teams would be the Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds. NASCAR journalist Jordan Bianchi expanded in length on a Dale Junior Download episode: “This has been kind of rumbling for a while. When I first got word about this back in Spring that this may be the case, obviously, the Braves were involved. They’re a local team, an original team if you will. They’re going to be playing Cincinnati Reds…That announcement’s expected to happen on Friday.”

Bristol Motor Speedway has hosted off-track games before. In 1961, it hosted an NFL exhibition game between Philadelphia and Washington. Then their most recent venture was a college football game in 2016, that drew an enormous crowd of 156,990 and set a record in football. Bianchi strongly believes that the 2025 MLB game could reach or break that. “There’s a good chance that this game between the Braves and the Reds could set that record. Depending on the logistics of how this all works out, this could be the most attended baseball game in the history of the sport which would be fascinating.” Bianchi also applauded Bristol for this “out-of-the-box idea”.

According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the largest number achieved is way lower than Bristol’s 2016 success. A 2008 exhibition match between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers at the Coliseum recorded a crowd of 115,300. So if Bianchi’s prediction proves correct, then Bristol Motor Speedway’s experiment can easily break that record. And MLB stars are super excited about this venture as well.

Baseball stars are pumped to play on a NASCAR track

While the 2016 football game was organized at Bristol, hosting the MLB game may be a challenge. While football fields are long and narrow, baseball fields are more square. So fitting a baseball ground may be tough, as the resulting outfield will take on a very strange shape. However, Marcus Smith’s achievements are reassuring. In 2021, SMI covered the entire track in dirt to host NASCAR’s first premier series race on dirt since 1970. In 2016, he reshaped Bristol Motor Speedway to host a college football game. So why not MLB?

Moreover, MLB players are thoroughly excited about showcasing their talents in Bristol. Atlanta Braves pitcher Grant Holmes exclaimed, “Inside of it? That’s crazy! That’ll be really cool.” Braces third baseman Austin Riley confessed he had never been to a NASCAR race, despite living so close to Talladega. But he is excited as well: “It’ll be like SEC football…It’ll just be cool to do something different. You see all this stuff, teams traveling abroad, change it up a little bit. I think it’ll be kind of cool and unique.”

Evidently, this NASCAR-MLB mash-up is bound to be immensely popular. Any kind of cross-sports phenomenon is a crowd-puller, as it is out-of-the-box and unique!