The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will compete this week in Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend. Predicting the drivers for this short track is as hard as it is for Daytona and Talladega. There is nowhere to hide this week since the cars race so close and turn laps at 14+ seconds. If one car gets loose they could take out half of the field.
Qualifying was rained out Friday so Fox Fantasy Auto Racing will not be awarding bonus points for position differential this week. The strategy is to simply pick the drivers you think will finish up front while staying under the salary cap.
Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch seem to be the class of the field this week. Unless someone takes them out, the two Kyle’s are nearly locks to finish in the top five.
Joey Logano has two wins at Bristol and another one could come Sunday. He has finished the last three races at the track in the top 10 and Larson has finished every race (except Phoenix) in the top six. Logano is worth his price this week.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. did not set the track on fire in practice but he never does. Earnhardt has a series-best average finishing position in the last four races at the track. He is too cheap to ignore Sunday.
Erik Jones must be on all teams this week. He has never competed in a Cup Series race but he has absolutely dominated the Xfinity Series at Bristol. He was fast in practice and he is the cheapest driver in the field this week.
Here are my picks for the Food City 500….
Driver 1: Kyle Larson $12,900 (Starts Pole)
Driver 2: Joey Logano $12,800 (Starts 5th)
Driver 3: Kyle Busch $11,400 (Starts 7th)
Driver 4: Dale Earnhardt Jr. $6,600 (Starts 20th)
Driver 5: Erik Jones $5,000 (Starts 14th)
* Do not worry about leaving money on the table this week
Good luck this week!
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