Brandon’s Best Bets: Food City Dirt Race

It has been over 50 years since the NASCAR Cup Series has raced on dirt. That will change this weekend after they transformed the Bristol concrete half-mile race track into a half-mile of dirt. This is one of the biggest wild card races of the season and will be wildly entertaining for race fans.

For this article, I’m just going to focus on potential outright winners including a long shot. Kyle Larson is the heavy favorite as he should be. He has an excellent dirt resume and will be very tough to beat. However, at +300 I’ll take a look at some other guys that may be able to put their cars in victory lane Sunday evening.

Outright Winner

Christopher Bell (+800)

Bell has a background in dirt racing and will be among the top contenders in this race. The NASCAR Truck Series has been racing on dirt the last few years at Eldora Speedway. Bell was very successful in those races. He led 61 laps and won the race back in 2015 at the track. Bell comes into this race with the second-best odds to win behind Larson. Bell already has one win on the season back at the Daytona Road Course. He will look to wheel his Toyota on the dirt to his second victory on the season and the second win in his Nascar Cup Series career.

Chase Briscoe (+1000)

Briscoe is another guy that has a background in dirt racing. He grew up in Indiana and at a young age began racing at dirt tracks. He used that experience and was very successful in the Truck Series. Briscoe won three years ago at Eldora and finished third and seventh in the other two truck dirt races he competed in. Briscoe is actually entered in the truck race Saturday night at Bristol and is also a very good bet in that race as well. He is currently at +700 to win the truck race and has the ability to win either the truck or the Cup race this weekend.

Austin Dillon (+2500)

Before the Cup cars start racing on the dirt at Bristol, the track held some late model races last week. Dillon was there most of the week and even picked up a couple of wins. He is another driver with a lot of dirt experience. He won the inaugural race at the Eldora Truck race and can definitely get it done on the dirt. Dillon started the week in the top five in terms of odds of winning. He was slower in practice and that bumped him down to the 12th highest odds. That now makes him a really good long shot worth throwing a couple of bucks on. Look for Dillon to be one of the top contenders in this race.

Check us out on our socials:
Twitter: @PTSTNews and @TalkPrimeTime
Facebook Page: Prime Time Sports Talk
Join our Facebook Group: Prime Time Sports Talk
Instagram: @ptsportstalk