Speedway Classic

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

The unbeatable Cincinnati Reds take on the Braves at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee on August 2.

I don't mind these one-off games in unique locations. This one will have a heavy integration with Nascar. They released uni designs today -- they will wear thrusting chromy numerals like the cars have--Reds on the front and back. Reds get checkered flag hat brims and Braves get flames.

Start your engines!

Edited July 21, 2025 by Johnny Lunchbucket

[Edgy MD]

Is that jumbotron hanging over the middle a permanent fixture? They probably have to build scaffold towers of 30 stories or more to suspend it.

[Gwreck]

I’m sure there’s all sorts of considerations we’re not privy to, but that layout looks incredibly stupid, with home plate nowhere near any of the curves of the track, and thus basically everyone is a mile from the action.

[MFS62]

I’m sure there’s all sorts of considerations we’re not privy to, but that layout looks incredibly stupid, with home plate nowhere near any of the curves of the track, and thus basically everyone is a mile from the action.

Doesn't matter. This is a NASCAR track in Tennessee. They won't notice.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I expected the seating to be blacked out beyond the outfield, not behind home plate.

I also kind of expected the field and the oval to be bisected along the same axis, but I guess the outfield corners would not fit inside the track that way.

Dumb question, but why don't speedway stadia have tiers?

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

The Braves caps with the flames are funny. Perfect for this location.

[MFS62]

Dumb question, but why don't speedway stadia have tiers?

 

Never thought of that. The engineer in me suspects it may have something to do with airflow between the tiers causing dangerous and unpredictable wind currents that make steering (even more) dangerous.

Another answer is single decked arenas are cheaper to build when available land isn't an issue..

Later

[Frayed Knot]

The back side of the field part of the stadium is where the pre-game Tim McGraw/Pit Bull concert is going to be. (Finally, those two together at last!!)

It's unclear to me if one ticket gets you into both or not.

As far as the tiered stadium goes, my guess is that there are so many seats you can get out of just one tier given the MUCH bigger plot of land the "field" takes up to begin with (Wiki sez that Bristol has a capacity of 146,000 though not all of that is seating) that there's simply no need to build second deck.

btw:https://phpbb3.ultimatemets.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33641&p=166027&hilit=Bristol#p166027

[Cowtipper]

I'll be there :-)

[ashie62]

I like it. It's an MLB innovation that most people will like

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Racetrack developers missed the whole small charming stadia thing that was happening in baseball and starting in the 90s built a bunch of cookie-cutter 1.5 mile ovals in **** cities all over with capacities of 90,000 or so.

Many of them don't host Nascar at all anymore; almost all of them have drastically reduced capacity. Daytona at one time sat 170,000 and now max out at 100,000.

Dover Downs went from 130,000 to 54,000 -- it was all grandstand so they just took big chunks out.

[Edgy MD]

So, cities that host (or at least have their name on) both an MLB franchise and a NASCAR track include:

 

• Atlanta (the Braves play in Cobb County and the speedway is in Hampton, but both of them identify with Atlanta, so ...),
• Cincinnati (Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, KY is purty close, plus Johnny Bench is, like, the NASCAR-iest Hall of Famer there is),


• Dallas/Ft. Worth/Arlington
• Kansas City (the ball team is on the Missouri side and the speedway is on the Kansas side)


• Las Vegas (the ball team hasn't yet arrived),


• Miami (the speedway is in Homestead),


• Phoenix (track is in Avondale).

 

Other kind-of-close-to-MLB-towns-but-not-really NASCAR tracks include Michigan International Speedway (ninety minutes or so from Detroit), New Hampshire Motor Speedway (75 minutes and a state border from Boston), and Sonoma Raceway (an hour on a good-traffic day from San Francisco).

That is actually more overlap than I would have guessed, but obviously the two sports have a lot of unexplored room for synergy. It might make some sense to have future events at the home team's nearest track.

[MFS62]

Kansas City (the ball team is on the Missouri side and the speedway is on the Kansas side)

 

If you've ever been there, then you'd know why that doesn't come as much of a surprise.

Later

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

I've been to two races at Michigan International Raceway. My employer at the time was the title sponsor, so we had an indoor suite. That is the only way to attend one of those. But it was possibly the most fan-friendly event ever. We got to walk on the track and sign the finish line - not sure of that is an MIS thing, or they all do that - wander around the pits, wander around the crew trucks and area. As the sponsors, we got to be part of the trophy presentation on the infield. There was an outdoor viewing area on the roof of the suite. That was the loudest thing I've ever experienced.

I like it when MLD does out-of-the-box things like this.

[kcmets]

I like it when MLD does out-of-the-box things like this.

 

Well, I'd rather they'd go back in the box and get rid of the ghost

runner and some other little silly things. But no, they'd rather focus

on lining the maga pockets of racetrack owners with gimmicky things

like this instead of keeping baseball baseball.

Put it together and whatya got? Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo...

(I know, it's actually boogity, boogity, boogity)

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

I like it when MLD does out-of-the-box things like this.

 

Well, I'd rather they'd go back in the box and get rid of the ghost

runner and some other little silly things. But no, they'd rather focus

on lining the maga pockets of racetrack owners with gimmicky things

like this instead of keeping baseball baseball.

Put it together and whatya got? Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo...

(I know, it's actually boogity, boogity, boogity)

 

I was thinking the Field of Dreams game, the Rickwood Stadium game, the Williamsport, Pennsylvania game, the international games, and things along those lines. No love for the ghost runner from me.

[Frayed Knot]

Let's not lose sight of the fact that this will be one game this year out of 2,430

[kcmets]

15 X162 = boogity boogity brilliant!

I'm sorry, I'm more in Camp Less-Gimmicks and more into MBBA!

[Lefty Specialist]

Sorry, this is stupid.

[Frayed Knot]

It brings the game to a city that's not within 300 miles of any ML city potentially exposing the game to some who have never seen a live ML game, and does so in a state where possible future movement/expansion is possible.

[Cowtipper]

Y'all I live 1/2 hour away from the Speedway and didn't even get to my parking spot until 5:20. At one point I had to re-center myself due to the chaos so I went to my work, which is just 10 minutes from the place (usually) and just to get from there to my parking spot took probably 1.5 hours.

And just to get from my parking to the actual gate took another hour or so.

These little tricities cities can't handle all the traffic.

[Frayed Knot]

Where does everyone park when there's a race there?

There are certainly more fans in the stands on a race day than today with the stands cut in half, no?

[Edgy MD]

I imagine that folks tend to arrive within a half hour of game-time for baseball, and they arrive hours or possibly days before for races and make an event out of it. So the traffic isn't as concentrated.

I imagine.

[Cowtipper]

Traffic is bad when the big races are happening but it still moves. This was stop and go for miles and miles.

People park everywhere for the races... locals and businesses open up their lawns and parking lots and there is speedway parking too.

I prepaid parking for the game but just ended up parking at a campground anyway, shuttled part of the way to the venue and walked the rest.

I've seen Taylor Swift live (don't judge) and this was worse that Taylor Swift chaos.

[Cowtipper]

And now we're in a rain delay. Well, I might be doing all this again tomorrow.

[MFS62]

I hope you get to see the game. You certainly earned it.

Later

[Cowtipper]

I didn't mention when I actually left home. I left at 1:50 and didn't get to the parking spot until 5:20.

It looks like they're going to start it at 9:40 as the tarp is off the field.

[Cowtipper]

Top to bottom this was a boondoggle.

Left home at 1:50 PM. Got home at 12:35 AM. Saw 1 1/3 innings of baseball. The star-studded musical lineup of Tim McGraw and Pitbull were on a stage wayyyyyyyyyy far off in the distance, so it was basically background music to anyone in the stands.

Parking was not well marked. I pre-bought parking in "Lot SP" which I assumed was the South Parking Lot ... since that's what was on the map on the website ... but it actually referred to "Shuttle Parking," which they didn't specify and I never actually found where the shuttle parking lot was.

The drive home was marked by roads being shrunk down to one lane despite there being 85,000 people trying to leave.

The rest of the game is set to start at 1:00 PM tomorrow, but if it's going to be anything like I put up with today, I might just call it good enough and forego the rest.

[MFS62]

Unless your masochism tolerance is very high, that sounds like the right choice.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

I'm not sure they're getting the game in today either.