One heaping helping of football is not enough for Northeast Tennessee, so a longtime regional advocate is about to serve up seconds.
 
Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS) announced today that Food City has come on board as central sponsor for the upcoming contest between East Tennessee State University (ETSU) and Southern Conference rival Western Carolina. The game, set to kick off on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 1:30 p.m., will be named the Food City Bucs at Bristol.
 
Headquartered in Abingdon, Virginia, Food City has long been recognized around the region as a strong community advocate. The company’s partnership with BMS is the second-longest entitlement sponsorship in NASCAR, and includes being the official grocery sponsor as well as the entitlement partner of the Food City 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, and Food City 300 XFINITY Series race.
 
“Food City is a tremendous friend to both Bristol Motor Speedway and this region, and has been for many years,” said Jerry Caldwell, executive vice president and general manager at Bristol Motor Speedway. “Their model of community stewardship and investment is inspirational, and we’re excited to once again partner with them for this game.”
 
ETSU’s recently-revived Buccaneer football program won their first game of the season against Kennesaw State, while the Western Carolina Catamounts began their season with a road test against East Carolina.
 
“Watching Bristol Motor Speedway transform from a globally recognized NASCAR track to a world-class football stadium has been an amazing process,” said Steve Smith, president and CEO of Food City. “We’re proud to welcome back the ETSU Buccaneers and can’t wait to see our regional athletes take the field for the Food City Bucs at Bristol.”
 
Tickets to the Food City Bucs at Bristol start at just $25,and are available at www.BristolTix.com, or by calling the BMS ticket office at (866)-415-4158.

 
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, 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.
 
About Food City
Food City is Bristol Motor Speedway’s longest running sponsor and the second longest in NASCAR.  Headquartered in Abingdon, Virginia, K-VA-T Food Stores (Food City’s parent company) operates 135 retail outlets throughout southeast Kentucky, southwest Virginia, east Tennessee, Chattanooga and north Georgia.