After a delay due to weather this past weekend, Kyle Busch picked up his second consecutive Sprint Cup win and is now solidly qualified for the Chase. Can he make it three in a row this weekend or will someone else pick up their first win of the season?
Just a word of caution to all of the Yahoo league players who are using Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney at this point of the season. You will only be able to use them for eighteen starts, which is half of the season. These two will run well all year. Right now you have drivers subbing for Tony Stewart. Even thought their finishes might not always be the best, they are in great equipment. Once Tony comes back there won’t be much to choose from in the C group other than Elliott and Blaney. You should consider starting whoever is in the #14 for now.
FOOD CITY 500
This week the series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for the running of the Food City 500. This is another short track like Martinsville, but with a huge difference in the banking. The banking here is between 24 and 30 degrees compared to the 11 degrees at Martinsville. This equates to lap times of around 15 or 16 seconds. Makes it a little hard to know who is on the lead lap and who is a lap down on this .533-mile track.
Kyle Busch: Kyle is on a roll now and with five wins at this track he is tied with his brother Kurt for the most wins by an active driver at Bristol. He also has finished in the top ten in thirteen of his twenty-one starts, qualified second last fall after missing the spring race due to injury, and finished in the top ten in the fall race. With momentum on his side he is going to be hard to beat this weekend.
Kurt Busch: As mentioned above, Kurt also has five wins at this track and always seems to qualify well here. Qualifying is huge at this track because you don’t want to start towards the rear of the field where you will be a half of a lap behind or more at the start of the race. With fifteen second lap times the leaders will catch the back of the pack quickly.
Joey Logano: Joey has won the last two fall races here and has qualified in the top ten in twelve of his fourteen starts here. If it was the fall race I would pick him to win again and will have him as my alternate driver in the A group for Yahoo this week. I can always start him depending on how he qualifies and looks in practice. He very well can get me qualifying points whether I start him or not.
Matt Kenseth: Matt has won two of the last five races here including this race last season to break a long winless streak for him. Matt has led almost seven-hundred laps here in his last nine starts, has finished in the top ten in twenty of his thirty-two starts, and has won four times here overall.
Carl Edwards: Carl has three wins at this track and has been running very well this season even though he is still looking for his first win of the year. One of his wins came here two seasons ago and he has led laps in five of his last seven starts at Bristol. Carl isn’t afraid to mix it up on the track a little bit if he has to and this is the type of track where you might need to use the chrome horn to make a few passes.
Brad Keselowski: Brad has two wins here in his twelve starts and like his teammate, Joey Logano, he seems to run better here in the fall night race. If Carl doesn’t mind mixing it up on the track, Brad loves to mix it up. He is of the attitude that trading a little paint is the way to race at tracks like Bristol and holds no grudges against someone who will bump him a little bit here.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Although he only has one win at this track and seven top five finishes in thirty-two starts, Dale hardly ever finishes outside the top fifteen. He is one of the most consistent drivers here with an average finishing position of 12.84. Dale has gotten better with each season at Hendrick Motorsports and will pick up a win before the start of the Chase.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: Ricky is my sleeper this week. He has only run six races at Bristol in his short career, but he has finished in the top six in three of those races including a second place finish in this race two years ago. He has looked very good up to this point of the season and could be a surprise winner this weekend.
Jimmie Johnson: Jimmie has finished in the top five here in his last four starts including a runner-up finish in this race last season. With two wins under their belt already, this team is qualified for the Chase and is just looking to add some bonus points now by picking up as many wins as they can. They are in a position to take a few chances late in the race to try and win races, so you can never count them out.
Greg Biffle: Greg has never won a race at this track, but he has finished in the top ten in half of his twenty-six starts. This team has struggled the past two seasons, but with his teammate, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., running well lately, this team shouldn’t be far behind. I think this is one of those tracks where Greg might surprise a few people and come away with a top ten finish and could possibly challenge for the win.
YAHOO! FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
Yahoo Driver Group A
- Kyle Busch
- Joey Logano
Yahoo Driver Group B
- Carl Edwards
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Greg Biffle
- Kasey Kahne
Yahoo Driver Group C
- Ty Dillon
- Chase Elliott
MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
- Kyle Busch
- Joey Logano
- Kurt Busch
- Matt Kenseth
- Carl Edwards
Dark Horse: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Stay Away From: Martin Truex Jr.
Big 18: Joey Logano
12 replies on “2016 Bristol Motor Speedway, Food City 500”
What does Big 18 mean?
It is a type of league that some people have asked for advice on where you pick any driver every week and receive his points for that race. The catch is that you can only use each driver twice during the season. Most people will use 18 drivers twice each thus the Big 18 name.
Which is my pool style and Jeff Gut giving advice strictly for that in addition to his normal advicr is another reason why he is the man.
Thanks for the compliment. Hope my advice helps everyone at least a little bit.
Who do you think will have a better weekend, Chase Elliott or Ty Dillon? Regardless of if your using Ty Dillon to save starts for Chase Elliott
Chase is the better driver at this stage of their careers, so I would say Chase.
I am going with Kurt Busch, bench Logano. Taking Stenhouse and Larson, bench Kahne and Mac. Taking Chase, bench Ty Dillon. What do you think?
Kurt is starting 26th and Logano 3rd and Logano has been faster in the practice sessions so I would go with Logano. Larson might be okay, but Kahne and Mac are both better than Stenhouse this week in my opinion. And as I explained in my article, use Dillon and save Elliott for later because once Stewart comes back there is no one in the C group who has good equipment other than Elliott and Blaney and you can only use them half of the year. If you use them up now who are you going to take the second half of the season?
I didn’t look at starting spot when I picked. With my A group I went with Kurt because of Loganos bad luck at this spring race the last three years. The middle group was a toss up for me so I went with the younger guys. You are right about the C group, so I put Ty Dillion in. Thanks again for the advice.
Any chance you will ever start doing a cheat sheet for Nascar Fantasy live ?
I will talk to the boss about that and we will go from there.
Yes Jeff I play Nascar Fantasy Live too and would appreciate some information. If not I will continue to read any stats that might help. Bristol is tough because anything can happen in 500 laps🏁