BRISTOL, Tenn. — The Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds will take the field at Bristol Motor Speedway Aug. 2 for Speedway Classic ’25, but only after work crews convert NASCAR’s cavernous “Last Great Coliseum” into among the world’s largest ballparks.
That work is now underway, with contractors taking down the speedway’s Goodyear building between turns one and two, lights which illuminate the racing surface and the infield Sunoco signs, according to Stephen Swift, SMI’s senior vice president of operations and development.
“The interior Musco lights that light the track have been removed — the structure, the wiring, the pieces that go with that. All the lights have been taken down, the panel boxes that feed those lights have been taken down,” Swift said Wednesday.
The roof of the Goodyear building — where the tiremaker operates on race weekends and Santa Claus greets children during Speedway in Lights — was the among the first things to go.
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“We’ve taken half the building out. You can’t just go in and start tearing things out. You have to get all the electrical input, the HVAC input, all the plumbing input and keep that safe for us to keep half the building,” he said.
Additionally, the Sunoco gas pumps and tanks that were in the infield, on the turn-one side, have been removed since NASCAR now hauls fuel to each track. The large Sunoco signage — including one that would have stood in the middle of centerfield — have all been removed.
“What will start next week is the walls. The pit walls have to be cut down. They’re roughly 24 inches and have to be cut off and removed for the game,” Swift said. “Naturally, after the game, we’ll put all that stuff back before the race in September.”
Swift said the plan is to fully rebuild the building, restore the walls, replace the lighting and whatever else needs to be done before the NASCAR race weekend, which begins 39 days after the baseball game ends — a week earlier than last year.
Major League Baseball will bring its construction team to prepare the playing surface and the walls which will surround it, Swift said.
“They come in June 16 and the big piece of that puzzle will be the field built first. That’s the bulk of the work — a lot of dump trucks will be moving in. That will start June 23 when they start building walls,” he said.
Swift said MLB and the speedway have been meeting for the past 18 months to work through the construction plans and schedule.
“They’ll work in concert but they’ve basically got a 30-day window they have to get everything installed. So, once the field is in place, the stone’s in place, naturally that opens up the team to start laying the turf and get the field itself prepped. The first couple weeks is really the push and then they roll in the rest of it.”
From June 16, they have until July 31 to complete every facet of the project. Swift said the schedule is “really tight” and every hour is accounted for.
As of yet, there have been no surprises, he said.
“MLB has a great team and has done a great job planning the event. Between our groups and those teams to come in and have those meetings, people really wouldn’t understand all the time we’ve met and what that process has led us to today,” Swift said. “I think the biggest surprise will happen on how quick they can get all this out so we can turn it back into a racetrack.”
Swift said this process has been a bit different than when the track hosted the Battle of Bristol college football game as infrastructure wasn’t removed then, the field took up much of the infield and MLB will be fully responsible for the playing surface.
“That was mostly a field build. This is a modification build. A little different challenges. The field is not as big as football but actually we’re putting in more field which is mind boggling,” he said. “Football, we learned a lot and we took a lot of those learnings. MLB also recognized a lot of that and have put that into the baseball field as well.”
The design has undergone “several iterations.”
“Getting the most seats that can see the field and trying to position that correctly. Also, the lighting levels. Our lights are designed to light the track not designed to light the infield,” Swift said in response a question. “Musco is a partner we’ve used for years and years…They’ve worked with MLB as well so they’ve been a key partner to look where they can put up temporary structures. What you’ll see as the construction process moves forward is lights that are put on the tops of roofs — that we did for football as well. They’ve been a great partner and really done their research.”
BMS President and General Manager Jerry Caldwell said they’re excited to begin the process.
“When you’re starting from the ground up, and you’ve never done this before, you’ll have some minor adjustments. There have been some minor adjustments as we look at what’s going to be available and we make sure we provide a great experience for all the fans,” Caldwell said.
He said response has been “great” both locally and nationally.
“This solidifies Bristol is known as a place to host unique events, to put on some of the biggest events in the world. We’re uniquely positioned to be able to do that,” he said.