Bristol Motor Speedway to host 2025 MLB regular season game featuring Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds

Bristol Motor Speedway will play host to a 2025 MLB regular season game featuring the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds, according to Jordan Bianchi and Evan Drellich of The Athletic.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith, who owns and operates Bristol, are set to make the announcement official on Friday at the racetrack. FOX Sports announcer Chris Myers, speaking on the prerace show ahead of this past March’s Food City 500 at Bristol, mentioned that “The Last Great Colosseum” would be the site of a future MLB game.

Bristol, which has a seating capacity of nearly 150,000, hosts two NASCAR Cup Series races each season. In 2016, Tennessee and Virginia Tech played a college football game on a purpose-built field in the infield. The game drew 156,990 fans in attendance, the largest crowd to ever watch an NCAA football game.

MLB, meanwhile, has continued to bring its game to different venues across the world. The New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox played the “Field of Dreams” Game in Dyersville, Iowa, in 2021. The following year, the Reds and Chicago Cubs played in the second annual “Field of Dreams” game.

Since 2017 and excluding the 2020 shortened season due to COVID-19, MLB has put on the Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. In 2019, the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers played in Omaha, Nebraska, two days prior to the start of the College World Series.

NASCAR, MLB teaming up to create monumental event at Bristol

The 2024 MLB season kicked off with the Seoul Series, the first regular season MLB games played in South Korea. The two-game set featured the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

Smith, like MLB, has been innovative in recent years, notably hosting a Cup Series dirt race in 2021, the first of its kind in the sport since 1970. The dirt race took place in the spring 2021-23 races before NASCAR switched back to concrete for both events this season. Smith also owns and operates Charlotte Motor Speedway, which in addition to hosting one of NASCAR’s crown jewel events, the Coca-Cola 600, sees the 17-turn infield road course play host to a playoff race.

Both entities are now teaming up to create what will surely be one of the most memorable baseball games of all-time, which could break the attendance record for an MLB game.