Major League Baseball and Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS) staff announced in August that the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds will play the Speedway Classic in Northeast Tennessee on Aug. 2, 2025.
The game will be the first regular-season MLB game played in the Volunteer State. In recent years, Major League Baseball played games in locations, such as Alabama, Iowa, Nebraska and North Carolina. Those games were the first MLB contests in those respective states.
Bristol fits into that mission by giving those who cannot always get to a baseball game a chance.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who traveled to Bristol for the announcement, looks forward to the associated economic opportunities.
“From an economic standpoint, it’s hundreds of millions of dollars, and that means opportunity for Tennesseans,” Lee told MLB Network at the event. “More importantly, what it does for me and for our state is it gives a picture to Americans of how remarkable and how unique it is here…When we have these global sports events, the world sees what we know here in Tennessee. And it’ll be an opportunity for people to see East Tennessee like they haven’t seen it and see just why so many people across this country are actually coming here and moving here and staying here, but it’s a big showcase for us.”
An outline of where the field will be was laid out on the BMS infield with replica NASCAR machines — one with Atlanta’s logo and the other with Cincinnati’s. Hall of Famer Chipper Jones threw out a ceremonial first pitch alongside NASCAR Hall of Famer Kevin Harvick, while Reds great Eric Davis was joined by racers Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott.
“I think it’s an amazing opportunity — and it’s already begun — to see NASCAR and MLB pull together,” Jerry Caldwell, BMS president and general manager, added. “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.”
The game will be the second professional sporting event other than racing held at the track. The Tennessee Vols and Virginia Tech Hokies played at BMS in 2016. That event set a record for the largest crowd at an NCAA football game, with nearly 157,000.
