The NASCAR Cup Series will race at their second consecutive short track this weekend when they take the green flag in the Bristol Dirt Race. This race is unlike any other race on the schedule, and it is not just because it is run on dirt. The Cup Series will have two practice sessions Friday and then they will run heat races Saturday evening to set the field for the Sunday main event. Here is the schedule for the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol…
BRISTOL SCHEDULE
NASCAR STRATEGY
The inaugural Bristol Dirt Race was a mess with all of the mud clogging the grills of the cars. That race had to be stopped to clean off the cars, but some cars already overheated. It is hard to use any data from the first dirt race at Bristol.
Last year’s race played out as planned. The “Dirt Track Aces” ran well for the most part with Tyler Reddick leading 99 laps, Chase Briscoe leading 59 laps and Kyle Larson leading 27 laps. We also saw drivers who are not known as “Dirt Track Aces” have good runs. Daniel Suarez led 64 laps Kyle Busch won the race. I expect the race this week to play out like the race last year.
You can watch the extended highlights of the last year’s race at Bristol here: NASCAR Race Rewind
I would just love to load my lineups with the drivers with a strong dirt track racing background, but the problem is that these drivers are really good on the paved tracks too. Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell should all run really well. Kyle Busch also has great stats at Bristol, and it doesn’t matter if it is dirt or concrete. I would love to use these drivers in all of my lineups, but I will watch practice Friday and the heat races Saturday to see if I can find any other drivers for my lineups.
FANTASY STATS FOR BRISTOL
We only have two races of data to work with for the Bristol Dirt Race. That is a short sample size, but any data is better than no data at all. Here are the Driver Rankings for the first two dirt track races at Bristol…
EARLY WEEK PICKS FOR BRISTOL
I have some of my top drivers in my lineups posted here. I expect this to change once we see the two practice sessions and the heat races this weekend.
ONE & DONE PICK: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
DRIVER GROUP GAME PICKS: Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece
FANTASY LIVE PICKS: Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe, (Garage) Daniel Suarez
Good luck this weekend!
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