DraftKings Preview

AustYn

The NASCAR Cup Series circuit heads west towards the Appalachian Mountains for the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. After an impressive showing by Hendrick Motorsports at Martinsville…which seems to be their home track…William Byron won his 2nd race of the year. Byron has all but solidified himself into the NASCAR Playoffs, as I do not believe winning just 1 will get you in anymore. Even though the series is going to Bristol, the racing will be totally different. There really isn’t a regular weekend in NASCAR anymore it seems. In other cool news, North Wilkesboro is coming back to feature some Late Models and such this Fall, I hope to see you folks there! Now…back to the Cup Series, Chase Elliott is the points leader by 3 points over Ryan Blaney. Kyle Larson has been shockingly inconsistent this season, but Bristol could be a place to get him back on track.

Bristol with dirt on it is totally unpredictable. The strategy for The Sports Chief will be to select the fast cars in practice and the heat races, but you must realize that the track changes each day, as they re-treat the track at night. The NASCAR Truck Series just completed 200 laps last night and have packed it in tight. Kyle Larson is the favorite according to CBS Sports at 7/1. Track position will be my focus today, I think you must gamble and select a dominator, because 250 laps are enough to matter, especially on a track that passing is difficult. Honestly, my strategy for the truck series was so awful, that I am bombing that one altogether. I thought that passing would be so difficult, that I could get away with picking the top starters and they would stay put…I was so wrong. Patient drivers with great car control are a must today. You have to think like you are at a superspeedway to be honest, with the unpredictability at an all-time high, I don’t believe there is a great strategy other than this. Tire wear will matter some, but not much and pit stops are on a clock so you can’t factor that in either. Pick the most consistent drivers that you can and wait for a great result, do not try to be a hero…at least that is what I am doing.

Top Pick: Christopher Bell ($10,800) Starting P2

Photo Cred: *(Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images) | Getty Images*

Look no further than a dirt racing guru…Christopher Bell is one of the best to do it and he looks very fast this weekend. Cole Custer is on the pole, but I look for Bell to unseat him on the first lap. The #20 machine could lead upwards of 100 laps and if he gets out front, it’ll be difficult to pass him. Many of the drivers who grew up on dirt are towards the front, Reddick, Briscoe and Larson are right behind him. Last year, the dirt stars didn’t really factor in, but it’s a new year and I like Bell with 8/1 odds to win.

Supporting Cast: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ($7,700) Starting P16 & Ty Dillon ($6,200) Starting 7th

The lowest priced driver who grew up on dirt or a name synonomous at least, with a legitimate shot to win is Stenhouse Jr. He placed 2nd here last season and 2022 has gotten off to a crazy rock start. This track could bring the JTG team confidence for the remainder of the season and I like the odds of Stenhouse to finish in the top-15. This next pick honestly has shocked me a little…GMS Racing is new to the Cup Series and Ty Dillon looked so strong in his heat race, that I had to go with him. I know it is crazy risky, but Dillon does have some dirt experience and he beat out Elliott, Larson, Stenhouse & Byron in his heat race…plus he has a pretty cool Gain paint scheme this week, let’s hope he keeps it clean and shocks the world at 250/1 odds.

FanDuel Preview

Yacs

It’s Bristol Dirt Baby! They have put dirt on top of the iconic Bristol track and we’re gonna go racing again today. I have to be honest, I don’t really like this. I thought the idea of it was cool a couple years ago, but now that I’ve seen a few races on it, it just doesn’t do much for me. These cars aren’t meant to race on dirt. It’s total chaos out there. Visibility for drivers is terrible, they have windshields when they shouldn’t and why would you mess with such an iconic NASCAR track? Well, my best answer to all of that is that this is what new NASCAR is all about. Trying different things to get more eyes on the sport. Enough of my gripe session though. We have some DFS picks to make. Last week, William Byron did it again at Martinsville. Byron has been the only multi-time winner this year and it looks like he may be real contender this season. I knew it was bound to happen sooner rather than later and we’re starting to see it. For this week though, expect the unexpected.

The surface is unlike anything on the circuit and there will be a lot of unexpected things that take place tonight. Unless we get an incredible race tonight, I just don’t think they will continue to race on dirt here. The idea was fun, but I just don’t think many drivers enjoy it in this type of car. For a strategy, I really don’t know what to tell this week. It’s almost as bad as picking drivers for a Super Speedway race. Joey Logano won the inaugural race here and it was a bit surprising, so will we see this again? I guess we’ll find out, but in the meantime, here are my FanDuel picks for tonight.

The Dirt Devils: Kyle Larson ($14,000) Starting 5th; Tyler Reddick ($11,500) Starting 3rd

The pricing model for FanDuel is a blessing and a curse all at once. You can get a lot of very good drivers in your lineup but having great drivers in your lineup for any particular week could end up biting you. I was going to try a strategy where I could get a nice low-budget lineup, but I couldn’t pass up Kyle Larson. I could afford him, so I went with him. I don’t think it’s a secret anymore that Larson is the best dirt driver out there, so why wouldn’t you want him in your lineup.?

Tyler Reddick is in a similar boat. These two guys are starting in the Top 5, but if they stay out of trouble, expect them to be fighting for the lead all night long. Past results here don’t really matter in terms of picking drivers, so all you can really do is pick drivers that respond to the surface well. Reddick and Larson are two of the best at that and they will be chosen quite a lot, but it’s almost unavoidable to not choose at least one of them.

High/Low: Martin Truex Jr. ($11,000) Starting 30th; Todd Gilliland ($3,500) Starting 23rd

I said you really can’t pick based on prior results, but Truex has been solid here in limited showings. He won the first truck race here last season and he led the most laps here last season in the Cup race. He didn’t finish particular well (19th), but I think he can do well again. He didn’t practice particularly well, but all of the Gibbs cars did, so I have confidence that they can figure things out during the race. His starting position yields a lot of passing potential.

As for my cheapest option, Todd Gilliland has run well in practice all weekend long. I hate that I didn’t follow through on my initial strategy, because I think we’ll see a lot of parity in today’s final results. I think there will be a lot of lower-tiered teams running well tonight and hopefully Gilliland is among those. Gilliland finished 4th last season at the inaugural truck trace here and hopefully he can replicate that performance. I think you’re getting a steal at his price.

Final Pick: Ryan Blaney ($9,500) Starting 25th

With $500 left to spare, we’re going to go with Blaney. He finished well here last year, and I think he could get another top 10 today. He’s inexpensive and you’re getting a 25th starting spot from him. He was OK in practice, nothing special, but I think he’s one of those drivers that will shine today. Dirt racing is in his DNA and I think he’ll prove it once the green flag waves.

NASCAR Food City Dirt Race DFS Preview