On September 10, 2016, Bristol Motor Speedway hosted a football game between the Virginia Tech Hokies and The Tennessee Volunteers.
The game set the attendance record for an American Football game with a final number of 156,900 cheering fans. The previous record was 115,109 for Michigan vs. Notre Dame in 2013. “There has always been a desire by fans to see a football game at our historic Speedway,” said Bruton Smith, the chairman, and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, Inc., when the news was officially announced in 2013. “We couldn’t be more excited to turn this long-time rumor into a reality and to provide sports fans with an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of the biggest college football game ever.”
Shortly after the news was announced, World Class Athletic Surfaces was contacted to supply paint that would be sampled on the surface that would be used to build the field. The Speedway chose to work with World Class for the Battle at Bristol because of the quality and ease of use with our paints. We were also working with both teams and had a reputation in the industry for producing paint and stencils for 26 bowl games, the BCS Championship, and The Super Bowl.
When it was time to build the field, World Class supplied the paint, the stencils, and a consultant to help “concrete guys” become turf experts. Each team provided a ground crew to do their end zone and World Class was responsible for the midfield and quarter field logos. A week after the game was done, the crew removed all of the paint so the field could be repainted for another college football game. Because the crew used WCAS removable paint, the field was able to be turned quickly and looked just as good for the second game.