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BRISTOL, Tenn. – It began with a promotion to help former series sponsor RJ Reynolds sell product.

Today, 25 years later, the Food City sponsorship of Bristol Motor Speedway‘s spring NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event is as strong as ever.

It is the second-longest race entitlement in NASCAR – trailing only the Coca-Cola sponsorship of the 600-mile May race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“We started in 1992, followed up the Valleydale 500,” Steve Smith, Food City President and CEO, said Thursday at BMS. “That was back when it was still Winston Cup. We worked with RJ Reynolds on a promotion … that was the whole genesis of us getting involved in racing.”

Initially, it wasn’t a long-term deal, but by the time the next season had arrived, officials with the grocery chain were ready and willing to return.

“We signed the (initial) agreement and we had a great first race,” Smith said. “Alan Kulwicki actually won our first race in 1992; I remember that well. We were off and running.”

Kulwicki, an owner/driver, went on to win the series title that season. Tragically, the following year he was killed in a plane crash while en route to BMS to defend his Food City 500 title.

Smith said his company, founded by his father Jack, became involved at the right time in the sport, when the fan base was on the upswing, TV coverage was gaining traction and sponsorship dollars were flowing.

“What happened with Bristol was really indicative of what was happening with NASCAR, it was just growing and growing,” he said. “Five years later Bruton (Smith, Speedway Motorsports Inc. founder) bought the track and things just really started to escalate here with the amenities and the things that they did for the race fans. … Folks love coming here, they love the racing environment, and they love, I think, the southern hospitality.

“We try, as a sponsor, to do a lot of things to get them in here a little bit early, whether it’s Food City Race Night or other events to really make it a full week of fun for the race fan.”

In addition to the Sprint Cup race sponsorship, the company also sponsors the August NASCAR XFINITY Series event at Bristol. While there have been times that spending money on race entitlement rights might have been questionable, Smith said “I don’t think there’s ever been a time when we really thought about dropping the race.

“Now, we’ve negotiated pretty tough with Speedway Motorsports because obviously the fan base dropped a little bit, the viewership dropped a little bit, but when you’ve got folks like (former BMS General Manager) Jeff Byrd and (current GM) Jerry Caldwell that you know are going to do everything they can to give the race fan, our customers, that experience, it makes it pretty easy to continue to spend the dollars and continue to keep our associates that work in our stores involved in racing, and that’s a big part of it, too.”

The return for Food City, he said, comes in many forms. No. 1 is name recognition.

“We’re a relatively small regional company — we’re in four states, 135 stores, 16,000 associates,” Smith said. “It sounds like a lot but in the scheme of things compared to some of our competition, it’s not. But it’s a sense of pride for our associates, our customers who know we sponsor racing.

“NASCAR fans are very loyal, they’re loyal to the brands that are involved whether it’s Food City or other consumer products sponsors. We think it helps us sell more products and bring more people in to our stores.”

In February of 2014, Food City and BMS officials announced a five-year extension for the naming rights of the track’s spring Sprint Cup race.

“At the end of the day, it’s hard to put a financial statement together that proves that it’s a great spend, but we’ve been doing good ever since we been sponsoring racing so we don’t want to stop there,” Smith said.

BRISTOL, Tenn. — The unveiling of Colossus, the world’s largest outdoor, center-hung, four-sided video screen, is the latest addition in amenities race fans can enjoy when attending NASCAR-sanctioned events at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“To be able to unveil Colossus today is a neat experience and definitely one for the history books at Bristol Motor Speedway,” BMS General Manager Jerry Caldwell said Thursday during a private unveiling of the engineering marvel.

The entire piece weighs approximately 700 tons and is suspended by cables attached to towers located outside the track. The screens on each side measure 68 feet wide by 30 feet high. Construction, which began last fall, was completed earlier this month.

“What Bruton and Marcus (Smith) continue to do with this place and re-invest, I mean look at this, look at the sound system,” Caldwell said. “They didn’t have to do that. But they wanted to do that because it’s the right thing to do for the fans. They want it to be great.”

Officials said there are no concerns outside of those that existed for the previous scoring pylon that was anchored in the center of the .533-mile track’s infield.

“This thing is so over-engineered that … all those questions were asked when we were going through this process,” Caldwell said. “We’ve had engineers from all over the world study this and peer reviews upon peer reviews of that. So we feel good about everything that’s up there and having Colossus is going to be a great experience for all of us.”

Steve Smith, CEO of race sponsor Food City, said the new video screen “is just another of those pillars that Bristol Motor Speedway does for the race fans.”

BMS will host the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race Saturday (first heat race at 12:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN) and the Food City 500 on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

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“What it does even more so than during the races is (enhance) our pre-race shows,” Caldwell said. “Our pre-race shows are amazing. There have been times when it’s been hard for the race fans to hear the pre-race show, to hear from the drivers and what they’re saying. And we’ve heard from the race fans; this sound system came from the race fans. They said they wanted new speakers. Of course Marcus and Bruton answered their call. We’ll see what happens with the races but I know it’s going to enhance the pre-race experience tremendously.”

The idea for Colossus came about as officials began preparations for hosting this year’s inaugural Battle at Bristol college football game between the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech.

Other similar non-racing events are being considered; Caldwell wouldn’t confirm anything beyond this fall’s football game, scheduled for Sept. 10. “We’ve had some really good conversations,” he said.

“No question, Bristol is already on the map for hosting world-class NASCAR events, but this is for other sporting events and entertainment events. Look at this place; it really is a colosseum. What else can we do? Colossus is the start of that.”