Introducing our newest Fan4Racing writer, Bryan Law

As Tennessee faces Virginia Tech at Bristol Motor Speedway on September 10 later this season, it could be one of the biggest games ever participated in by the SEC, if not all of college football. Estimated to fill ‘The Last Great Colosseum’ all the way to the full capacity of 160,000, if not more, it will go down as the largest college football game in history. Just a couple of years before, there was talk of Florida possibly playing a game at Daytona International Speedway after finishing their renovation project.

Believe it or not, Daytona had hosted four college football games before, all by Bethune-Cookman during the 1974 and 1975 season. There hasn’t been a college game at Daytona since then. Even with the downsizing to 101,000 seats, it would still be huge for the super speedway to host a football game once again. Daytona could host Miami, Florida or Florida State in any season. Who knows, down the road they could host their own bowl game. Of course, we’ll leave the bowl naming for the later possibility.

What intrigued me just recently, was as I browsed through Twitter and saw where Mike Joy was talking about the new stadium possibly being built-in Los Angeles should they get an NFL team again. I jokingly tweeted to him about putting in a race track with the new stadium. To my surprise, he replied that Bowman Gray Stadium hosts not only NASCAR sanctioned races, but home football games for the Winston-Salem State University Rams.  Football seats 17,000 while racing seats 20,000. I never knew such a place actually existed until now.

If I had brought the idea up before all this news came out, I would most likely be laughed at for such an outrageous idea. Having racing and football games inside one venue is almost a fairy tale to most fans. Who would be next to host a football game at a race track. If Talladega could scoop up some cash and put up lights, either Alabama or Auburn could host a game at the track. Atlanta Motor Speedway could be a good example for Georgia or Georgia Tech if they had the room inside the infield.

Perhaps Texas and Texas A&M getting back together at Texas Motor Speedway? Okay I’m running off the deep end here with ideas, but it’s truly something to consider when almost any fan would want to mix football and racing together. Kansas and Missouri at Kansas Speedway? Okay I’ll stop. But Tennessee at Bristol Motor Speedway is a start, is it not? There are actually fans who like college football and NASCAR at the same time. Try dealing with it at the start of football and in the heart of the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup.

This is truly a new start for both sports and most tracks. If you could build a stadium for racing and football, not even Jerry Jones would have the funds. It would take a lot more cash to do such a project, and could bankrupt an entire state. Like when I mentioned one time before about the NCAA sponsoring auto racing. It would also take billions of dollars for the tools and technology to pull off such a humongous project. Although both ideas seem totally impossible, we can still dream right?