NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. advises the Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds to watch video of a couple of night races at Bristol Motor Speedway before Major League Baseball’s Speedway Classic takes place at the short track in East Tennessee.
Once at the track, the 37-year-old driver of the Hyak Motorsports No. 47 Chevrolet recommends a walk up the banked walls to truly appreciate the half-mile bullring.
Either the Braves or the Reds will win at Bristol before Stenhouse reaches victory lane at his favorite track. He still plans to watch on Aug. 2 as they play an MLB game on a ballpark built on the infield of the venue known as “The Last Great Colosseum.”
“Hopefully, if they get one over the wall, kind of see where that ball ends up landing,” Stenhouse, who has a pair of runner-up finishes at Bristol during his Cup Series career, said of the track where going over the wall usually means injuries and ambulances. “But, yeah, just a really cool venue and something that I’ll be looking forward to watching.”
Stenhouse’s four Cup Series wins have come at the two longest tracks on the circuit — he has two each at Florida’s Daytona International Speedway (2.5 miles) and Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway (2.66 miles) — that are a far cry from Bristol. Those three-wide tracks are known for wrecks often referred to as “the big one” because they collect so many cars at once, but Bristol has its own challenges.