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We’re at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend for short track action in Thunder Valley. Bristol is one of those races that is always awesome to watch on TV, but it’s always frustrating from a Fantasy NASCAR perspective. The reason it’s always been frustrating is because one small mistake can easily ruin a driver’s day; one loose wheel or one pit road speeding penalty (hello Denny Hamlin) can easily put a driver down 5+ laps at a short track like Bristol. So you’re relying on drivers and teams to not make any mistakes as well as keep up with the track, which is difficult enough in itself.

Anyway, let’s get to this slate breakdown. First, here are some helpful links to the practice speeds and qualifying results from this weekend:

DraftKings Strategy Tactics for Bristol

Photo Credit: Robert Laberge/Getty Images

Dominator. Points. We’re set to run 500 laps around Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend, and even though rain is threatening to cut this race short–or possibly even postpone it–I’m going to assume that all 500 laps are going to be ran. There’s lights here, and with Bristol only being a half-mile track, it dries pretty quickly.

Anyway, dominator points are obviously extremely important at this track, and from what we saw at Martinsville a couple of weeks ago, it might be extremely difficult to pass the lead here on Sunday. Do I think it’s going to be as tough as it was at Martinsville? No, but I think the guys starting up front have a more significant advantage to grab dominator points than at previous Bristol races.

Another interesting aspect to consider this weekend is the traction compound that has been applied to the track. Most drivers are saying that it is going to take longer than normal to wear out on Sunday–which would give those who stay at the bottom of the track more of an advantage–but, again, this is a long race, and eventually that high line is going to come into play. Drivers who aren’t overly strong to start the Food City 500 could easily become contenders by the end of it.

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Bristol Food City 500 DraftKings Projections

You can click the headers below to sort the chart by that attribute. By default it is sorted by average projected FPTS.

DriverStarting PositionDraftKings SalaryAvg Proj FPTSAvg. Projected FinishProj Laps LedProj Fastest LapsDollar Per FPT
Kyle Busch17$12,900 87.403.64046$148
Kevin Harvick13$11,600 85.903.05939$135
Erik Jones4$7,800 79.204.07837$98
Chase Elliott1$8,900 78.904.68841$113
Ryan Blaney3$10,300 78.204.47739$132
Clint Bowyer8$8,600 72.903.85430$118
Kyle Larson16$9,500 55.609.21222$171
Martin Truex Jr23$9,800 54.710.4017$179
Jimmie Johnson10$8,000 53.009.42125$151
Kurt Busch27$10,700 52.911.8011$202
Denny Hamlin5$9,200 50.905.22711$181
Ricky Stenhouse Jr19$7,600 49.911.8021$152
Joey Logano7$11,100 49.307.01119$225
Brad Keselowski12$12,200 40.112.2614$304
Daniel Suarez20$7,300 39.314.609$186
Matt DiBenedetto21$6,700 35.616.206$188
Austin Dillon15$7,200 33.014.004$218
Aric Almirola6$8,300 31.112.249$267
Ty Dillon24$5,800 27.620.200$210
Chris Buescher25$6,400 27.221.402$235
Ryan Preece30$6,500 24.025.000$271
Daniel Hemric26$6,000 23.623.200$254
William Byron2$6,800 23.316.0218$292
Bubba Wallace28$6,200 22.824.600$272
Ross Chastain37$5,700 21.829.600$261
Corey Lajoie32$5,200 21.227.400$245
Ryan Newman11$7,000 19.619.206$357
Alex Bowman14$7,400 19.419.802$381
David Ragan22$5,600 18.823.600$298
Landon Cassill31$5,300 18.628.200$285
Paul Menard9$6,900 18.118.222$381
Matt Tifft29$5,500 14.229.400$387
Quin Houff36$5,100 12.034.000$425
Michael McDowell18$5,400 11.625.200$466
Gray Gaulding33$4,700 10.233.400$461
Bayley Currey34$4,800 09.634.200$500
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As someone who has always been obsessed with numbers, Fantasy NASCAR has been the perfect fit with me. I pride myself on the quality of my analysis for each race, and am glad that I have been able to help others along the way. I've been a serious Fantasy NASCAR player for over 10 years now, and I'm just getting started.