BRISTOL, Tenn. -- The instant the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds cleared the baseball diamond inside the infield at Bristol Motor Speedway, a new clock started.
"The Last Great Colosseum" has to switch from hosting the MLB Speedway Classic and be ready for NASCAR's return to the historic racetrack for a playoff race Sept. 13.
The first MLB regular-season game in the state of Tennessee set a record with a paid attendance of 91,032, but now it must get back to its racing roots.
"It is difficult, but it's things that we like," said Steve Swift, Speedway Motorsports' senior vice president of operations. "It gives us a challenge and we like challenges."
Major League Baseball used BaAM to create everything from clubhouses for the Braves and Reds, complete with showers, strength and conditioning rooms, coach and trainers' offices and batting cages. They constructed grandstands down both base lines with broadcast booths.
Pit walls were taken down and now have to be rebuilt. The transformation to a baseball diamond in the infield required 17,500 tons of gravel to level the infield, then 340 tons of Pennsylvania clay for the playing surface.
Swift said pouring concrete walls takes time -- and then more time to cure properly.
"As soon as the last pitch is thrown, the last hit's hit, teams do their thing, postgame's taken care of, pads will start coming off the wall, and they'll work through the night to basically start disassembling so we can reassemble for the NASCAR race," Swift said.
Some of the gravel will be used in Bristol's parking lots. Swift said they have found groups to help use some of the materials to help people still recovering from the damages left by Hurricane Helene. That includes 2x4s and plywood used for the grandstands.
"A lot of stuff is going to go to good use as far as the rebuild portion," Swift said. "We just need to get it out of the way so we can put back asphalt and concrete."
This new renovation schedule has a couple of days built in for protection. The target date for being finished is Sept. 7.
"There may still be some paint drying whenever they roll in with the Goodyear haulers, but we'll definitely shoot for (Sept. 7)," Swift said.
Bristol hosted a college football game in 2016 that drew 156,990. Now the NHL might be in Bristol's future after Sportico reported Friday that league officials would be checking out how the racetrack handled Major League Baseball.
"We've shown with football and now baseball being here, that things can take place and we can do the things that nobody would even think about," Swift said.