Rumors circulate of possible Atlanta Braves-Texas Rangers MLB game at Bristol Motor Speedway

FOX Sports announcer Chris Myers, speaking on the prerace show ahead of Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, mentioned that “The Last Great Colosseum” will be the site of a future MLB game.

Rumors are now circulating that the Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers could soon play a game against each other at Bristol, which would be the first professional baseball game to take place at a racetrack, per Johnson City Press.

Atlanta’s inclusion in the game would make a ton of sense given the Braves’ footprint in the southern region. The Braves have televison and radio presence in Tennessee as well. The Rangers, meanwhile, are the defending World Series champions and also have a large fanbase and presence in the region. In all likelihood, the earliest the game could be played is 2025 since the 2024 schedule is already set.

In recent years, MLB has experimented with playing regular season games in non-traditional ballparks and settings. The New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox played the “Field of Dreams” Game in Dyersville, Iowa, in 2021. The following year, the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds 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.

The 2024 MLB season gets underway this week with the Seoul Series, the first regular season MLB games played in South Korea. The two-game set features the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

Bristol makes headlines for playing role in Food City 500 conditions

Bristol is fresh off hosting the Food City 500, a race which went down as a tire management race.

With resin applied to the racetrack as opposed to PJ1 and Goodyear looking to create a tire that would wear, the combination resulted in the concrete Bristol surface eating up tires at an alarming rate. So much so, NASCAR authorized Goodyear to pass out an additional set of tires during the race to each team. In the end, it was Denny Hamlin who came out the victor, leading a race-high 163 laps.