With a little over a week remaining until the roar of NASCAR engines return to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race weekend, Sept. 11-13, track officials said Wednesday that the rebuild project following the MLB Speedway Classic in August is nearly complete. More than 200 workers from MLB and 100 BMS operations employees and contractors have been working non-stop since the final out of the historic MLB Speedway Classic to change the facility from a baseball stadium back into its normal setting of a world-class NASCAR venue.
Once MLB cleared out the temporary structures and removed the field, Speedway Motorsports senior vice president of operations and development Steve Swift and his crew took over to do all the polishing and finishing touches so it looked like nothing had ever happened. Some of the rebuild projects included putting the Goodyear Building back together, replacing several walls in Turn 1 and near pit road on the frontstretch and also doing some painting to walls and reworking electrical wiring at different points around the infield and reinstalling several lighting structures in turns 1 and 2.
“The guys are cleaning up and putting the finishing touches on it,” Swift said. “By Friday, we will have 100 percent of the (Goodyear) building finished and be ready for racing.”
Swift said this rebuild was a little more detailed than following the Battle at Bristol football game back in 2016 or the NASCAR on Dirt racing between 2021-2023.
"The football field and the dirt, we didn’t have to tear anything much out of it,” Swift said. “But baseball, we had to take down so much to get ready for the field. Then, we had to build and place the field inside the stadium. With football, there was very minimal demo or rebuild. It's been a great blessing to have dry weather and great partners to get everything finished actually a few days ahead of schedule."
BMS President and General Manager Jerry Caldwell says the transformation back to speedway is just as visually striking as the building of the baseball field.
"It's amazing to look around here and see all the work that has been done and think there was a Major League Baseball field here last month," Caldwell said. "The facility looks incredible and we are ready to host some NASCAR Playoff racing next weekend. We are so blessed to have very talented people working on this project and they are great at what they do. And I know it was hard work getting all this done and we can't thank them enough. We can't wait to welcome all of the NASCAR teams back here to The Last Great Colosseum in less than eight days for three great nights of racing."
The Bass Pro Shops Night Race weekend will feature three nights of action-pack racing, showcasing the Round of 16 Playoffs for the Cup Series on Saturday night (7:30 p.m., USA Network, PRN Radio) with Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, William Byron and recent Darlington winner Chase Briscoe, among others, looming large as the pre-race favorites.
The Round of 12 Playoff opener in the NASCAR Xfinity Series is the Food City 300 on Friday night, Sept. 11 (7:30 p.m. The CW, PRN Radio). Look for Justin Allgaier, Austin Hill, Sheldon Creed, Brandon Jones, Sammy Smith, Jesse Love, and Connor Zilisch to challenge for the victory as their postseason gets underway.
On Thursday night, Bristol Motor Speedway will feature a thrilling doubleheader to kick off the weekend, with the second race of the Round of 10 Playoffs in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series headlining the action. Corey Heim, Ty Majeski, Rajah Caruth, two-time Bristol Truck winner Chandler Smith and defending winner Layne Riggs are among the drivers to watch in the UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics (8 p.m., FS1, PRN Radio). Thursday’s racing will open with the Bush’s Beans 200 ARCA Menards Series (5:30 p.m., FS1) race, where the future stars of stock car racing will strut their stuff. A strong mix of veterans and newcomers will tangle for the victory, including Lawless Alan, Lavar Scott, Brendan “Butterbean” Queen, Brent Crews, Garrett Mitchell (aka Cleetus McFarland), Logan Misuraca, Bobby Dale Earnhardt and Isabella Robusto.
To purchase tickets to the Bass Pro Shops Night Race weekend, please visit the Bristol Motor Speedway website, or call the BMS ticket sales center at (866) 415-4158. Limited tickets are available for purchase at your neighborhood Food City stores until Friday, Sept. 5.
