BRISTOL, TENN. — On Sept. 2, 1961, just 41 days after the Bristol Motor Speedway opened in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the race track hosted an exhibition NFL game on land that had previously been a dairy farm. Billed as the “First Annual Pro-Bowl Football Game,” the clash between Philadelphia and Washington attracted just 8,500 fans and failed to generate a profit. One of the players would later call it “the worst field I had ever seen.” There was no second iteration.
R.G. Pope, one of the three original co-owners of the track—and my great, great uncle—sold his stake in Bristol Motor Speedway due to his disappointment not long after. It’s safe to say he should've been more patient with his investment.
Bristol Motor Speedway has become known as The Last Great Colosseum, one of the country’s crown jewel stadiums. It hosts two NASCAR Cup Series events per year and is renowned in racing for its speed and high, 30-degree banks on the curves that allow it to lay claim to being the “world’s fastest half-mile.” Its capacity ballooned to over eight times its original figure over the course of several expansion projects, making it second to only the Indianapolis Motor Speedway among U.S. racing venues in terms of capacity. And in a reversal of fortune on the gridiron, Bristol Motor Speedway hosted a 2016 clash between the Tennessee Volunteers and Virginia Tech Hokies that drew 156,990 fans, a college football record.
This weekend, the track helped MLB set a regular-season attendance record, as the Speedway Classic between the Braves and Reds sold 91,032 tickets, topping the 84,587 fans who watched Cleveland host the Yankees on Sept. 12, 1954. Unfortunately, the event may be remembered by fans as more trouble than it was worth, partially due to circumstances beyond MLB’s control and partially due to some mismanagement amid what was an extraordinary lift on the production side to put on the first-ever major league game in a NASCAR stadium.
“Honestly, my first thought is I can’t believe they did all this for one game,” Braves first baseman Matt Olson said Saturday before the game’s postponement. “To be able to set all this up, get a playing surface ready … It's pretty incredible.”
The artificial playing surface was heavily tested by a slow-moving storm that lingered in Bristol throughout Saturday and started dumping rain at a far greater pace just minutes before the scheduled start time of 7:15 p.m. After a two-hour, 17-minute delay, the teams took the field, but couldn’t even make it through a full inning before the skies opened up again and the tarp came back out. Less than an hour later, the game was suspended until Sunday afternoon.
“It’s a tough situation. We live in this part of the country where those [storms] pop up and the rain is unpredictable, and you can see a window [to play] and then it shuts right there in front of you,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said Sunday. “I thought Major League Baseball did a great job. They tried to get it through. Terry and I both wanted to put it to bed last night; it didn’t happen. … Everybody that was making those decisions, it’s not easy. When you’re in those rooms, and it’s a game of this magnitude, those aren’t easy decisions.”
The stands were noticeably thinner Sunday, at least at the outset. Perhaps that was due to fans’ pre-booked travel plans to leave that morning. Perhaps it was because they were frustrated by having to wait out Saturday’s delay as concession stands ran out of supplies. (MLB allowed fans to bring in food and soft drinks Sunday, seemingly an admission of the dreadfully long lines that plagued Saturday). Or perhaps they were discouraged by the arduous late-night exit process, as a location bereft of adequate public transportation and rideshare drivers forced most fans to walk long distances in the rain to their car or a suitable spot to be picked up.
The attendance milestone should perhaps come with an asterisk, anyway—even with some sections blocked off, thousands of fans had terribly obstructed views due to the press box along the third base line, a rather careless oversight seemingly born from the league’s desire to set an attendance record. That being said, there were plenty of open seats and tickets weren’t being checked at section entrances, so if fans wanted to upgrade their views the old-fashioned way, the opportunity was there—and many clearly took it.
As it were, the home of racing’s fastest half-mile ended up hosting baseball’s slowest half-inning. The Reds scored once in the bottom of the first before the game was called Saturday. Braves youngster Hurston Waldrep, who was supposed to pitch in Triple A on Sunday, was instead called up overnight and relieved starter Austin Cox upon the resumption of play Sunday. He retired the side before going on to earn his first major league win. “One inning down!” one fan sarcastically yelled upon the completion of the near 16-hour opening frame.