Braves, Reds to play at Bristol Motor Speedway

Fasten your seat belts, Major League Baseball is coming to Bristol Motor Speedway.

Officials from MLB and the track known as “Thunder Valley” that holds more than 146,000 fans for NASCAR races announced Friday that the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds will play in the Speedway Classic there on Aug. 2, 2025.

An outline of where the field will be next summer was laid out on Bristol’s infield with replica NASCAR machines, one with Atlanta’s logo and the other with Cincinnati’s logo.

Hall of Famer Chipper Jones of Atlanta threw out a ceremonial first pitch alongside NASCAR Hall of Famer Kevin Harvick, while Reds great Eric Davis was joined by racers Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain for their throw.

It will be a Reds home game, with the first two of the series being played at Cincinnati.

Major League Baseball has sought out and played games in different locations, such as the Field of Dreams games in Iowa; earlier this year in Birmingham, Alabama, to celebrate Negro League baseball; and overseas in London the past several years.

Bristol, located in northeastern Tennessee on the state’s border with Virginia, fits into that mission and gives those who can’t always get to a baseball game a chance to see how the game has evolved, said Jeremiah Yolkut, MLB vice president of global events.

“To be able to bring the game here to Bristol and create storylines that tie into a faster-paced game, high energy and big moments, this is the stage that we want to put that on,” Yolkut said.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, at the track for the announcement, said Bristol is an iconic venue that has hosted pro and college football in its past, along with some of the most exciting NASCAR races on its 0.533-mile oval.

“History will be made when you have a special game here,” Lee said.

The game will be the first National League or American League regular-season game played in the Volunteer State and continues MLB’s push to break new ground. There have been major league games in recent seasons at Fort Bragg in North Carolina in 2016; Omaha, Nebraska, in 2019; Iowa’s Field of Dreams in 2021; and Rickwood Field in Alabama earlier this year.

Those games were the first MLB contests in those respective states.

“Major League Baseball is excited to deliver a special game at Bristol Motor Speedway, a unique setting that sports fans will remember forever,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.

Jones, who played his entire big league career with the Braves, was wowed thinking about a game at Bristol.

“I never thought I’d see an infield of a NASCAR track, especially this one, knowing all these haulers are packed here like sardines,” said Jones, elected to the Hall of Fame in 2018.

Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion and a big Braves fan, drove the Atlanta car for a few laps, dueling racing competitor Chastain in the Cincinnati car.

Elliott won an All-Star Race at Bristol in 2020 and wants to come back in a year for the game. “I just hope I can make it,” said Elliott, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion.

That might be a big ask since NASCAR is likely running that August weekend, although the schedule has yet to be announced.

Harvick, the Hall of Famer, had no doubt that fans who fill the stands for racing will be just as supportive when the Reds and Braves arrive.

Harvick remembers the “Battle of Bristol” in 2016 when college football powers Tennessee and Virginia Tech played at the track in front of a record 156,990 spectators.

“I think people are going be surprised at the size of what we would call a short track, and now we’re going to put a baseball field in the infield,” Harvick said.