NEWTON, Iowa — While the NASCAR Cup Series stars tackled practice and qualifying at Iowa Speedway on Saturday afternoon (Aug. 2), another short track halfway across the country in Bristol Motor Speedway will see action of its own Saturday night with Major League Baseball’s inaugural Speedway Classic.
A regular season MLB game between the National League’s Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds, the Speedway Classic marks the first MLB game held at Bristol, and it comes nine years after The Battle at Bristol, the name given to the college football game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Virginia Tech Hokies held in the infield of the 0.533-mile short track.
The Speedway Classic has already been a commercial success with more than 85,000 tickets sold in Thunder Valley, and the game is set to break a 71-year-old record to become the most-attended regular season game in MLB history.
Chase Elliott, NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver and a huge Atlanta Braves fan, is eager to watch his team play ball in the World’s Fastest Half-Mile.
“I’m excited about it, I think it’s going to be really, really fun,” Elliott told Frontstretch. “I was watching SportsCenter this morning and they were talking to some of the players, even Ozzie (Albies), and some of those guys haven’t even seen (the track) yet. So that’s kind of cool. It should be a treat for everybody.”
Elliott is just one of many drivers that will be keeping an eye on the event.
“I think it’s going to be fantastic,” Ryan Blaney said in his Saturday morning press conference. “If I was around, I would definitely go because that’s a once in a lifetime experience.
“Hopefully it’s not once in a lifetime; hopefully that becomes a normal thing.”
“If I have time, I’ll check it out and see how it goes,” Denny Hamlin said. “Certainly, it’s good to see the MLB is embracing it as much as anyone.”
“I did see it’s raining there; I’m not shocked about that,” Ricky Stenhouse Jr. joked. “Hopefully it doesn’t rain tonight. I got to go to New York and help do some promotion for the Speedway Classic, and man, it seems like they’ve done a great job.”
The event is a huge opportunity not just for Bristol, but for NASCAR as a whole to bring new and unsuspecting fans to one of the prestigious venues on the schedule.
“I think that’s the hope in it, is to at least attract people that have never been to Bristol,” Elliott explained. “I mean, the (NASCAR) race is only in about a month. I think once people lay their eyes on the facility and how nice it is, I would have to imagine it would at least make you curious to maybe come back and see it. Hopefully that’s the case and we can get some MLB fans to come check us out.”
“Hopefully the fans have a great time and see what a beautiful facility and venue Bristol Motor Speedway is,” Christopher Bell said. “It would be awesome. I know most of the first timers that I bring to the racetrack, they just ooh and goo over the banking, and are like, ‘holy smokes, I can’t believe how banked the track is.’
“So hopefully it drives interest, and we get some people out for the race in the fall.”
The Speedway Classic will begin at 7:15 p.m. ET on Saturday, Aug. 2, with TV coverage provided by FOX. The Cup Series will return to Thunder Valley for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Sept. 13.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf