Chipper Jones, Chase Elliott is watching baseball in Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Chase Elliott is a great Atlanta Braves player and he gave Chipper Jones, one of the best players in Braves history, a ride around Bristol Motor Speedway.

The car had a rev limiter, so Elliott could not go as fast as he normally does on the 0.533 mile high banked track (he could hide 125 mph load to qualify). It was still a great experience for Jones.

The most famous NASCAR driver and the Braves legend know each other by heart – the first NASCAR race Jones attended as a fan was the July 1984 race at Daytona. Elliott, with his Georgia roots, has been building the club for as long as he can remember.

The superstars gathered on Friday for what they hope will be another exciting time as their worlds collide. Major League Baseball announced Friday that Atlanta and Cincinnati will play a regular season game on Aug. 2, 2025, in a field built at the Bristol track. FOX will air Saturday night’s primetime game.

“Growing up 20 miles from Daytona and going to the Daytona 500s and Firecracker 400s, I watched [Elliott’s] father rule me [No.] 9 car back in the day, you would have thought [this game] I could have been at Talladega or Daytona — a big thing with a big field,” Jones said as he sat next to Elliott.

It’s hard to see it here as it is, but it will look completely different next year.

Elliott believes it will be a good moment. The streak has the potential to close the MLB record attendance of 115,300 for the game. Bristol would not release potential capacity but should have at least 125,000 seats available.

“I’m a Braves fan like everybody else,” Elliott said. “To have a small part in this and to be able to help promote it is a great honor for me just to grow up watching them…. I guarantee that anyone here will have very good experience.

“This is one of the best services we come to every year. I think everyone in the industry will tell you the same thing. It will suit the needs of everyone involved, to from MLB to the Braves to the Reds. It’s going to be a great event.”

The field will measure 330 feet down the lines, 375 and 384 to the power fairways and 400 to dead center. Construction will begin on July 1 with a target of 30 days. It will then take 15 days to clear the field after the game. There will be some changes to the current interior, the removal of some of the race pit walls and the removal of at least part of the tire structures.

There were markings in the infield of the track where the field would sit and foul lines. The surface of a baseball field cannot be a racetrack itself.

“It looks very short – I’m not sure where they had the targets if it’s going to change,” Elliott said as he tried to imagine a pitch with a turf field. to you. “It’s going to look very different. And I don’t think the number they got is quite right.”

Jones said he wonders how the temporary field will play out.

“It’s going to be really fun to watch the transition happen,” Jones said. “One of the questions I had was, how is the field going to play? This was before I knew it was going to be all sand and clay around the bases. .

“I thought they were going to bring grass in here, and you can’t put a baseball field together in a very short period of time. I was relieved to hear it was going to be sand. It was going to be hot. Turf it’s much hotter than the natural environment.”

Jones said even though it will be hot, it will also be a good way to break up the monotony of summer baseball.

“The habit of being a major league baseball player is amazing,” Jones said. “You do it all day, every day – you rarely have a day off. It’s good to have something to break the monotony, and this is a perfect example of that.

It’s very hot here. The boys are tired of the dogs. And towards the end of July, beginning of August, most guys will tell you that they hit a wall for about a week or 10 days where they’re not happy anymore. And I feel like it’s a break from the monotony of everyday to come here and be a part of something special like this, every guy on that list will sign up for it, I can promise you. “

Many will likely sign up for the ride, too, with Elliott on the way. The car Elliott was driving wasn’t a NASCAR Cup Series car – it was a rally car. It also had a rev limiter and tires not used in NASCAR races in accordance with NASCAR’s strict testing rules that allow testing only at permitted times.

“My pucker factor was 9.5, and it was just me and him out there,” Jones said of riding around the track. “Can you imagine another 38-39 cars that are so close? That’s why all the professional athletes stand in awe of the professional athletes in other sports. I stand in awe of what these guys are doing.

“This is the third or fourth time I’ve had to walk the road and be in a car. It’s too fast.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has covered motorsports for decades, including 30 Daytona 500s, with coverage for ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bopockrass.

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