Bristol Motor Speedway to Host MLB Game in 2025

What’s Happening?

The Athletic’s Motorsports Writer Jordan Bianchi and Senior Writer Evan Drellich reported Tuesday afternoon that Bristol Motor Speedway would host a Major League Baseball game between the National League’s Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds in 2025.

• Bristol Motor Speedway is a half-mile-high banked oval in Bristol, Tenn. Speedway Motorsports has owned and operated the track since 1996. Since its opening in 1961, the facility has hosted two yearly races and a total of 124 NASCAR Cup Series races. It is known for its historic sell-out streak of 55 straight races from 1985 to 2010.
• The track has made a name for its history of odd promotional tactics, including dirt racing. From 2021 to 2023, it hosted the Food City Dirt Race, the first dirt race for the NASCAR Cup Series since Sept. 30, 1970. But the track reversed course for 2024, returning its spring race to concrete.
• BMS has also hosted the occasional non-racing event in the past, including in 1961 when the track hosted an NFL Preseason Week 5 game in which the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the then-Washington Redskins 17-10. The facility recently hosted the 2016 Battle at Bristol between the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Tennesse Volunteers. This game set the record for attendance for a college football game at 156,990.
• Though the track has never hosted a baseball game, the MLB has hosted numerous neutral-site games in the past decade. This practice has happened historically, such as the late Montreal Expos playing in Puerto Rico in the early 2000s. Recently, the league has played games in cities like London, Mexico City, Seoul and Tokyo. Like with Bristol, the MLB has also gone to exciting facilities, such as The Field of Dreams Game in Dyersville, Iowa, and this season at Rickwood Field, the oldest standing professional ballpark located in Birmingham, Ala.

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