Food City 500
Bristol Motorway Speedway
Saturday brought the first night of the season, which had to be waited for after rain delays. Once it got going however, one of the faster tracks on the circuit lived up to its billing with exciting, sometimes four-wide racing. It also served as the site for the further coronation of Kyle Busch as he kept his sweep streak happening. Dale Jr. over-performed to a degree with a second place finish as he dodged a late-race crash.
After leaving the Appalachian Mountains for a week, NASCAR is back in the mid-Atlantic mountain country as they had back to Bristol for the second-shortest track in the series. With the return of the short track racing, the strategy for lineup construction changes too, with more attention being paid to front of the pack drivers.
Slower track speeds and a lack of passing mean that in the history of Bristol Motor Speedway the winner of the race has come from the top-five starting positions 91% of the time. That’s an astounding number and one we should pay heed to when fitting the six potential drivers into our cash and GPP lineups. Track history should also carry weight too, and just to be sure of your picks you can check their stats on the track breakdown page.
As expected the top drivers are all $10,000 plus meaning that cheaper plays have to be maximized for point value as you will have to play at least two of them this week.
Let’s start digging into the driver breakdowns and lineups.
Food City DFS Playbook
| Driver | Draft Kings | Description |
| Kyle Busch | $10,700 | Kyle is on a hot streak and comes to a track on which he's won five times before. He also sits in the Top-5 which is a great place to start at Bristol |
| Kevin Harvick | $10,500 | Harvick has the second highest average rating on Bristol in the last two years at 108.9. He doesn't finish quite as here as other tracks |
| Joey Logano | $10,300 | He is the driver in the field with the most wins most recently at Bristol with 2. Also qualfied third giving him a prime spot to attack from |
| Jimmie Johnson | $10,200 | Only has one win on the track but routinely finishes in the top-5 and is driving the brand that has the most wins on the track historically |
| Matt Kenseth | $10,000 | With 508 laps led in the last three years, Kenseth has the most led in that span. He is also the second best driver on the track in the last two years |
| Carl Edwards | $9,900 | Edwards is coming off his his highest scoring race of the season at Texas and earned his second pole in a row. Pole sitters tend to lead a lot of laps early |
| Brad Keslowski | $9,800 | Bristol is another track in which Keselowski always seems to hang around and he should be hunting after a disappointing performance at TMS |
| Dale Earnhardt Jr. | $9,100 | Jr. performed well on the last short track race, Martinsville, and at this price point he is just begging to outperform projections |
| Austin Dillon | $8,200 | Dillon has had four races this year with 42 or more points scored not to mention the best race of the season came at Martinsville a fellow short track layout |
| Kyle Larson | $7,600 | Larson is a top-10 driver at Bristol base on average rating and is coming off his best point total of the season at Martinsville two weeks ago |
| Jamie McMurray | $7,500 | McMurray is another interesting top-10 driver pick at Bristol and has led the sixth most laps there in the last four races. He doesn't have the highest ceiling |
| Ryan Newman | $7,300 | It has been off season for Newman but Bristol has been one of his best tracks in the past. Though there has been limited upside, Bristol can change that |
| A.J. Allmendinger | $6,600 | He is again a great value this week especially since his best race of the year came just a few weeks back at Martinsville. |
| Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | $6,400 | Stenhouse Jr. is a boom or bust candidate but this may be the week to bet on him with a very good history at Bristol with 2 top-5's and 3 top-10's in the last 4 |
| Aric Almirola | $6,400 | Despite his rough season so far, Almirola does have a good history at Bristol with a top-5, and 3 top-20 performances in the last four races |
Like we hinted at, at the top of the article, strategy changes from intermediate tracks like Texas to the short tracks of which Bristol is one. Pole sitters at short tracks are good plays in both formats because they will tend to lead a lot of laps as passing is hard to come by, just look at Kyle Busch at Martinsville. However with most of the top-five qualifiers costing $10,000 or more it is hard to get more than three of them in the lineup without having to completely punt on the last two spots. If you are uncomfortable with playing the pole sitter, you can easily sub in either Joey Logano (third to start) or Jimmy Johnson (sixth) and Matt Kenseth (2nd) instead of Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards.
Short tracks offer the chance to play very similar lineups to the cash lineups but to still have higher boom or bust potential. Keeping two of the same core drivers is not a bad strategy. Kenseth hasn’t had a great year so far but he does tend to dominate at Bristol having led the most laps there over the last three years, so looking at his numbers are misleading but allows for the playing in GPP formats. Five of the six drivers in the lineup are historically top-15 drivers at Bristol but in one way in another are having a down season before coming to Bristol, save for Kyle Busch.
Food City 500 Optimal Lineups
| Draft Kings Cash | |
| Kyle Busch | $10,700 |
| Kevin Harvick | $10,500 |
| Carl Edwards | $9,900 |
| Paul Menard | $7,100 |
| Ty Dillon | $6,300 |
| Landon Cassill | $5,500 |
| Total | $50,000 |
| Draft Kings GPP | |
| Kyle Busch | $10,700 |
| Matt Kenseth | $10,000 |
| Carl Edwards | $9,900 |
| A.J. Allmendigner | $6,600 |
| Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | $6,400 |
| Aric Almirola | $6,400 |
| Total | $50,000 |
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