Isn’t it wonderful when NASCAR goes beyond racing? NASCAR has recently joined hands with Major League Baseball. The collaboration of the two sports is truly unique as the Bristol Motor Speedway is set to host the MLB Speedway Classic in 2025. It will be a regular-season baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds played in the middle of a racetrack.

Jerry Caldwell, president and general manager of Bristol Motor Speedway, spoke about the collaboration and how it’s a move to bring the two worlds together. He said, “I think this is a great platform for that. I think our fan bases fit naturally together, but I think we can do a lot of fun things to expose folks to both sides of that.”At the announcement, representing the NASCAR faction were, Chase Elliott, Chipper Jones, and veteran Kevin Harvick. Out of the three, Chase Elliott is a huge Atlanta Braves fan. At the announcement, he expressed his excitement about coming to watch the game.

Chase Elliott is excited about the MLB event

The upcoming MLB game in Tennessee will mark the state’s inaugural Major League Baseball contest, joining a list of five states that have hosted their first MLB games since 2016. The baseball event is scheduled for August 2nd, and mostly, the Bristol race takes place in mid-April. What is interesting is the design of the baseball stadium.

They are constructing a baseball field in the middle of the race track. To execute plans perfectly, MLB has tapped architectural firm Populous and landscape design company BrightView to construct the field. Experts in their work, have recently collaborated on the build-out of Rickwood Field in Birmingham.

For this, the Bristol Motor Speedway will need to modify its track layout, including removing a section of the pit wall and a tire-changing building to accommodate the upcoming event. One person who is extremely excited about this game is the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott who rarely misses a game. At the announcement of the event Elliott was representing the racing side, where he said, “I just love baseball love watching um Have gotten you to know a chance to get to know guys like chipper and follow uh the Braves closely for a number of years now so hope I hope we can come  and watch in person.”

Elliott had indeed followed the Braves closely, on several occasions he’s flown back home after his race to watch them in action. NASCAR is yet to announce the 2025 Cup Series schedule and hence it is difficult for the die-hard fan to put a pin in his calendar. Reiterating this he said, “I’m not sure what our schedule’s going to be next year but I think it’s going to be a great event and everybody’s going to enjoy it so um we’ll see  and as I said I just hope I can make it you know selfishly.” Whether he’ll be able to make it to the game or not is uncertain. However, Elliott did not let go of the opportunity to envision how the track would look once the construction was done.

Elliott envisions the Bristol track fused with a Baseball ground

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Although this is the first time the Bristol track will host a baseball game, it’s not the first time it’s hosted a different sport other than a thrilling race. In 1961, it held an NFL preseason match, and in 2016, it hosted two consecutive college football games in Tennessee-Virginia Tech and East Tennessee-Western Carolina. But since it’s the first for a baseball game, construction and some changes need to be made. Chase Elliott was quick to imagine how they would look post-changes.

In a video posted by Fox News’s Bob Pockrass, Elliott said, “I mean, I think it’s really more of a Chipper question than me considering I don’t play baseball. But I will say, you know, and he brought it up and was saying there, he’s like, man, that doesn’t look like 330, you know, it’s pretty short, too.”‘

Elliott thinks it’s going to look very different once it’s completed. According to him some buildings at the track are going to be removed. Reiterating this, he said, “I’m not sure exactly where they have to post or I would imagine why that’s going to change. And some Kevin was saying that that building is going to be going away potentially down there. So it’s going to look so much different.” Can you imagine what an asphalt track with green turf in the center would look like? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.