BRISTOL, Tenn. – The familiar chorus rang out once again – for what seemed like the hundredth time – in a very unfamiliar place. As the Tennessee fans serenaded, well, everyone with “Rocky Top,” Marcus Smith pulled out his phone and shot a video.
“Unbelievable,” said Smith, the COO of Speedway Motor Sports, Inc., which owns and operates Bristol Motor Speedway. “So cool.”
Yeah, Smith is biased. But it was a fairly common reaction Saturday night, when they played a football game at a racetrack.
Tennessee beat Virginia Tech 45-24, overcoming an early 14-0 deficit and thrilling the sea of orange that made up perhaps 70 percent of the crowd of 156,990, a record for a college football game (shattering the previous high of 115,109 for Notre Dame at Michigan in 2013).