Marcus Smith And Jerry Caldwell Talk About Tennessee Football At Bristol

  • Monday, August 29, 2016

The following transcript contains excerpts from Monday’s press briefing regarding the status of the transition of converting the infield of the raceway to a football field at Bristol Motor Speedway from Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith and Bristol Motor Speedway Executive Vice President/General Manager Jerry Caldwell. The Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol featuring the Tennessee Volunteers vs. Virginia Tech Hokies will kick off Saturday, Sept.

10, at 8 p.m. with television coverage provided by ABC.

JERRY CALDWELL: This has been a tremendous effort. I am always careful (about timing); I will just say we are doing really well on our timing. I don’t want to jinx anything.  We are in a good spot with the timing with everything going on in our schedule for conversion. That wouldn’t be possible without some great partners in Baker Construction, who led off the charge and were able to get us back on schedule after a little delay with the weather, and also Astroturf, T&B Seating, Kirby Rental and JA Street. They’ve all been great to work with us and get us to where we are. It’s only 12 days and it will be upon us. 

MARCUS SMITH: We stood out on the field a second ago and said 20 years ago this was a pipe dream. We were in the office, Jerry, Jeff Byrd, and my dad Bruton Smith and this idea of a football game in the infield was brought up and it was mainly to get a new media center. It was time for a replacement for the old media center. We got this beautiful new media center and here we go now with the football game on our heels. My first impression was just wow. I’ve seen pictures and been getting updates and text messages from Jerry with pictures. I’ve been following along watching the construction cam online to see the progress and it has been so exciting. To be here in person and see what everybody has done is really phenomenal.

MARCUS SMITH: My dad is a visionary and he is always teaching me something. I love that about him. Literally this year he has not stopped talking about this game. He is a huge NASCAR fan and he’s been to every one of our NASCAR races this year and a couple of drag races, but the Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol is what he’s been talking about all year. He is so excited about it. He’s going to come up on Wednesday so he can be here the whole weekend to take it all in.

JERRY CALDWELL: There’s not a bad seat here. For people who haven’t been here and aren’t familiar with the setup, when they think about a race track they think about a big open mile and a half track. From the beginning, I remember the folks who came in from Tennessee when we were still in discussions and wanted to see the facility before they agreed to anything. He said ‘whoa, wait a minute this is just a big football stadium.’ We jokingly say we’re a football stadium on steroids. There’s not a bad seat in a house without any TVs, and when you add Colossus in the mix you aren’t going to miss anything.

MARCUS SMITH: Colossus is the world’s largest center-hung television. It is fitting because this is a football stadium on steroids and it needs the biggest scoreboard around. It adds so much for the race fans’ experience, and football fans will feel right at home. The sound system is [540,000 watts]. You will hear it and feel it. It’s really going to be a fantastic experience for the fans when they come here for the game. I think every fan is going to be amazed. I am in Charlotte and getting asked all the time about tickets. People want me to find them tickets that they will be happy to pay for. I’ve been telling them since December that it is sold out.

JERRY CALDWELL: All grandstand seats are sold out, but we have tickets for a few premium areas left out here on the track.

JERRY CALDWELL: There’s been so much enthusiasm throughout the region from Knoxville up to Roanoke around this football game. You’ll see storefronts – all the Food City stores are painted with Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol designs with Tennessee and Virginia Teach and a lot of other stores are doing the same thing. We are so pleased with all of the cities and how they have partnered with us.  Bristol, Johnson City and Kingsport have all partnered with us. Bristol will be hosting a downtown party and have an event on Friday night with music and celebrity appearances. Johnson City has their kickoff for the tailgate on Thursdaynight. Kingsport is also doing something. That all leads up to our tailgate party here, with Kenny Chesney, the Band Perry and Old Dominion here on Fridaynight. We still have a few seats left for that, so give us a call. You don’t want to miss that; it will be the largest concert we’ve ever had in the Tri-Cities I would say. It’s going to be a lot of fun.   

About Bristol Motor Speedway

Nestled in the mountains of northeast Tennessee near the Virginia state line, Bristol Motor Speedway is a 0.533-mile concrete oval race track with 28-degree corner banking, 650-feet straightaways and a 40-foot wide racing surface. Renowned as The World’s Fastest Half-Mile, the short track features two races each year from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series, one Monster Truck event and one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR K&N Pro Series-East race.

With a crowd capacity in excess of 150,000, the facility is expected to set a new NCAA college football attendance record on Sept. 10, 2016, when the racetrack transforms into a football stadium for the Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol, playing host to border rivals, the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech. The speedway property is also home to Bristol Dragway.

The historic drag strip celebrates its 51st anniversary this year, headlines with the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals and operates more than 70 event days each season. In 2015, the Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children’s Charities, a 501©(3) nonprofit organization, awarded a record-breaking $805,900 to regional children’s charities bringing their 18-year total to nearly $10 million in grants.

In existence since 1961, Bristol Motor Speedway was purchased in 1996 by Speedway Motorsports, Inc. a publicly traded company that is a leading marketer and promoter of motorsports entertainment in the United States. For more information, visit the company’s website at bristolmotorspeedway.com.


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