It’s Bristol Baby! If you think it would be cool to mix a demolition derby with a Superspeedway, then the Bristol Night Race is for you. There are many drivers who have scores to settle and others who will do anything possible to secure a place in the playoffs… Even if that means sending another driver into the fence. If there is not a fight after the checkered-flag this week, they did not do it right. This is “Must See TV on NBC. The Bristol Night Race can be seen Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.
NASCAR will have two practices Friday and qualifying Friday evening. The first practice is at 11 a.m. ET (NBCSN) and the final practice is at 1 p.m. ET (NBCSN). Qualifying is at 5:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN).
The cars will have a similar aero package as in the past. The cars will have 750 HP engines, without aero ducts. I expect the track will add the PJ1 compound to the trick to help promote racing at the top and bottom of the track.
My early week pick for the pole is Chase Elliott. The No 9 car has been very good at starting up front at Bristol. Elliott won the pole for the April race at Bristol and he qualified 2nd for the Bristol Night Race last year. Elliott also won the pole for the race at Dover this season (very similar track to Bristol). Elliott has 3 poles this season and I think he will add another pole Friday.
Each week I use different stats in my model to create the best rankings possible to give you an edge on the completion. This week I used Driver Rating on the Bristol, Average Finishing Bristol, Driver Rating at Steep Tracks (Bristol and Dover), Average Running Position at Steep Tracks (Bristol and Dover) and momentum over the last 4 oval races.
Here are the early week driver rankings for Bristol…
|
Driver |
| 1. Joey Logano |
| 2. Kyle Busch |
| 3. Ryan Blaney |
| 4. Clint Bowyer |
| 5. Brad Keselowski |
| 6. Kyle Larson |
| 7. Jimmie Johnson |
| 8. Kurt Busch |
| 9. Chase Elliott |
| 10. Ryan Newman |
| 11. Kevin Harvick |
| 12. Denny Hamlin |
| 13. Erik Jones |
| 14. Matt Dibenedetto |
| 15. Martin Truex Jr. |
| 16. Chris Buescher |
| 17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 18. Alex Bowman |
| 19. Daniel Suarez |
| 20. Austin Dillon |
| 21. William Byron |
| 22. Aric Almirola |
| 23. Paul Menard |
| 24. David Ragan |
| 25. Ty Dillon |
| 26. Darrell Wallace Jr. |
| 27. Landon Cassill |
| 28. Daniel Hemric |
| 29. Ryan Preece |
| 30. Michael McDowell |
| 31. Matt Tifft |
| 32. Corey Lajoie |
| 33. Ross Chastian |
| 34. Reed Sorenson |
| 35. Bayley Currey |
| 36. Quinn Houff |
| 37. B.J. Mcleod |
* I will post my final driver rankings Saturday night.
**Stats from Driveraverages.com and NASCAR Media. Career stats from Racing-Reference.Info…
*** Photos from NASCAR Media
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