The NASCAR Cup Series moves to Bristol for the Food City 500. It is time to continue our NASCAR Cup Series odds series with a Food Coty 500 at Bristol prediction, pick, and how-to-watch.
Last week it was Christopher Bell who took the checkered flag at Phoenix. While Phoenix is a small track, right around a mile, NASCAR moves to an even shorter track this week at the Bristol Motor Speedway. The track is just .533 miles long, with four to nine-degree banked straight away, and between 24 and 30-degree turns. It is also the only track left on the circuit to utilize two pit row lanes, instead of one.
The defending champion of this race Is Christopher Bell, winning the spring race here in 2023, but that was on the dirt track. The last time the spring race was run on concrete, was 2020, when Brad Keselowski took the win. Denny Hamlin took the fall race here on the concrete track last year and will be looking for a repeat performance.
Here are the NASCAR Odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
NASCAR Odds: Cup Series at Bristol Odds
Kyle Larson: +450
Christopher Bell: +500
Denny Hamlin: +500
Tyler Reddick: +1000
Kyle Busch: +1200
William Byron: +1200
Ryan Blaney: +1200
Ty Gibbs: +1300
Chris Buescher: +1400
Ross Chastain: +1400
Brad Keselowski: +1400
Martin Truex Jr.: +1600
Joey Logano: +1800
Chase Elliott: +2000
Alex Bowman: +4000
Bubba Wallace: +4500
Eirk Jones: +5000
Chase Brisco: +5000
Michael McDowell: +5000
Nosh Gragson: +6500
Daniel Suarez: +6500
How to Watch Cup Series at Bristol
TV: Fox
Time: 3:30 PM ET / 12:30 PM PT
*Watch Nascar LIVE with fuboTV (click for a free trial)*
Favorites To Win Cup Series at Bristol
Kyle Larson once again enters as the favorite in this race. Larson has been amazing on the short concrete track at Bristol in recent years. Since 2017, he has completed nine races on the short track here. Larson has led laps in eight of those races, including 175 or more laps in three of them. He has three runner-up finishes, a win, and has finished outside the top ten just once. Further, he has been in the top three at the end of a stage in six of the nine races here. He has, by far, the best average finish of any drive on this track among active drivers. Further, it has not just been about starting positions for him. Last year, he started 36th in the fall race, and would still finish in second.
Christopher Bell is coming off a win and did win on the dirt track last year here. Bell has not won on concrete before but has been great here in the last two races on this concrete track. In the fall of 2022, he led 143 laps, finished stage one in second, and finished stage two in first. It would all lead to a fourth-place finish for him. Last year, he started first and was in first after both of the first two stages. Bell would go on to lead 187 laps, but finish third.
Denny Hamlin sits third in odds and rounds out the top of the favorites in the field. Like many of the other favorites, he has a solid history on this track. He won the fall race last year, after starting second and falling behind. Hamlin would come back to get fourth in the second stage, and end up leading 142 laps on his way to the win. He also was solid in both 2021 and 2022. In 2021, he finished ninth after leading 65 laps and winning a stage. In 2022, he also would finish ninth. Hamlin also won here in 2019 and 2012.
William Byron is in the next tier of drivers after the top three in terms of odds, but still is top five on the board. Byron struggled often at this track for a long time. From 2018 through 2020, in six starts, he finished inside the top 15 just once. Still, signs of a turnaround were coming. In the spring of 2020, he was eighth, and then in the fall of 2020, he was eighth in the first stage until he was involved in an accident. Since then, he has finished third twice, and ninth once.
Sleepers To Win Cup Series at Bristol
Chris Buescher has been solid in four of his last five races here. This has happened since he moved back to a Ford from JTG Daugherty Racing. Since then, he has competed in five-point capturing races. In those races, he has two 23rd-place finishes, but he also has an eighth-place finish, a fourth-place finish, and a win. In the fall of 2022, he led 169 laps and won the race. Since moving to RFK racing, Buescher has been in the top five and led laps in each of the races.
Brad Keselowski has not won in over 100 races, but he has had some solid races here at Bristol. He won on this track in 2002, leading 115 laps. In 2022, he led 109 laps, won the first stage, but finished 13th. In his last six races, he has a win and four other top-ten finishes. During those same races, he has secured points by finishing high enough on a stage in every single one of them.
Michael McDowell is the deep sleeper here. He has never won on this track and has not led laps outside of the 2020 All-Star race on the track. Still, he has been in position to make a move in three of the last four races here. In 2020, he finished tenth but moved into striking distance late before falling back. The same is true in 2022, where he would finish 11th. In 2023, McDowell fell back early but came back to finish sixth at the track.
Cup Series at Bristol Prediction & Pick
Starting position is going to be key. In the last six races on the concrete track here, the winner has come from a top-five starting spot in five of them. This means looking at someone who could potentially win the pole is the best move. One of the best at that is Kyle Larson. He is the favorite to win for a reason, and could easily find himself in victory lane. Denny Hamlin, William Byron, and Chris Buescher also fit that mold, and could all have solid days as well, but look for Larson to win.
Cup Series at Bristol Prediction & Pick: Kyle Larson Winner (+450), Denny Hamlin Top 5 (-120), William Byron Top 5 (+120)
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