For the first time in history, a Major League Baseball game will be played in Tennessee, and the Atlanta Braves will take the field for it. MLB announced plans for the MLB Speedway Classic on Aug. 2, 2025, at the historic Bristol Motor Speedway.
The Braves will face the Cincinnati Reds in this special regular-season National League game held in what race fans call “Thunder Valley.”
The Bristol Motor Speedway is home to annual NASCAR series races. At just over half a mile in circumference, the oval is one of the shortest that regularly hosts a NASCAR event.
Georgia sports betting is still illegal. However, sports betting is legal in Tennessee, so Braves fans in attendance will be able to wager on the game. It will be the first time bets can be made on the Braves or any other MLB team playing in the Volunteer State.
Ball field will go up at Bristol Motor Speedway
A baseball field will be constructed within the Bristol venue’s infield between turns 3 and 4 of the famous track.
According to MLB, the dimensions will be “330 feet down the lines, 400 to center field, 375 to the right-field alley and 384 feet to the left-field alley.” That will make the field slightly smaller than most MLB ballparks. You can find renderings of the planned field on the official MLB website.
In recent seasons, MLB has scheduled special event games at various locations. In 2021, the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees played in the MLB at Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa, the site of the movie “Field of Dreams.”
Earlier this season, the Cardinals and the Giants played a regular-season game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, in honor of the MLB’s Negro Leagues heritage.
“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 press release from the league.
“This has been a long conversation with our friends at Major League Baseball,” said Bristol Motor Speedway president Jerry Caldwell. “It’s been a wonderful collaboration to get to this undertaking. Bristol is the home of big events.”
Game will be Braves’ first at a neutral site in 20 years
The game will count in the standings. For scheduling purposes, the Reds will represent the home team.
The last time the Braves played an in-season game at a neutral site was in 2004. The team appeared in the 58th Hall of Fame Game at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown. That contest was an exhibition game and featured future Hall of Fame players Chipper Jones and John Smoltz, and manager Bobby Cox in uniform.
MLB promises many crossover promotions with NASCAR celebrities during the event.
The Bristol Motor Speedway opened in 1961, and it has hosted nonracing events in the past. The Tennessee Volunteers and Virginia Tech Hokies played a college football game on the infield grass in 2016. In 1961, an NFL exhibition game at the track featured Philadelphia and Washington.
Recent marquee racing events at Bristol Motor Speedway include the Food City 500, the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, and the Weather Guard Truck Race series.
The Memphis Red Sox competed in three different Negro Leagues from 1923 through 1948. However, the games they played in Tennessee weren’t technically Major League Baseball games. MLB didn’t classify the leagues as major professional baseball circuits until 2020.
