DailyFanRacing NASCAR Preview - Bristol Dirt
What’s up, everyone?! It’s Dustin Maybin (@CUPharmDFS) back again with your weekly DailyFanRacing newsletter!
Weekend in Review
This past weekend was a wild one from a DFS perspective. Variance had a great effect on all four slates. In the Xfinity race at Richmond, the Toyotas deployed a pit strategy that nearly took them completely out of contention. Sammy Smith went from leading the first portion of the race to a lap down for most of the race. This was a huge shake up as it took the top two dominator threats out of dominator contention and threw a massive wrinkle into the slate.
The Truck Series put on their typical Texas action with carnage everywhere and a wreck at the front of the field taking out several frontrunners on the last lap, allowing Carson Hocevar to pick up his first career win.
Sunday saw a continuation of the mayhem, especially in the Formula One Australian Grand Prix. Alexander Albon had his day ended early after getting stuck in the gravel, and bringing out a red flag. George Russell’s day literally went up in flames, with a power unit failure. And at the end we were greeted with a red flag with two laps to go, 5 cars crashing out and Carlos Sainz picking up a penalty dropping him from 3rd to 11th. In the end, Max Verstappen cruised to a dominant victory as expected.
Thankfully, the Cup Series was a little more calm for the most part. However, the top dominator in the race, William Byron, was wrecked by Christopher Bell on a late restart, opening the door to different dominators being optimal. Kyle Larson used his short run speed to beat the JGR Toyotas and pick up the win on Ricky Hendrick’s birthday. If you’re a DailyFanRacing subscriber, you’d know that I was high on Larson going into the race. Many different things could have happened, but it was rewarding to be on the right track, no pun intended.
Here were my pre-race thoughts on the top 3 scoring drivers from Sunday, found exclusively at DailyFanRacing.com!
We didn’t stop there though; my PrizePicks plays (given for FREE in the DailyFanRacing Discord) went 5-0 this week. Simply put, if you’re not utilizing DailyFanRacing.com as your main source of all NASCAR and F1 DFS content, you’re missing out!
Bristol Track Preview
I love NASCAR, so having less action this weekend is a tough pill to swallow, BUT it does allow for more family time this Easter weekend. Plus, we’re racing on dirt this weekend. That’s right, the Truck and Cup Series will be racing at Bristol Motor Speedway, but on literal tons of dirt packed down over the usual concrete surface. Some find it fun, while others find it frustrating. Some find it boring, while others think it’s the best form of racing. Needless to say, it’s a polarizing concept for NASCAR to race on dirt here in the 21st century, but I appreciate the willingness to try new things and appeal to a broader audience. Remind me of that when I complain about the Chicago street course in a few months…
Typically, drivers have a qualifying session to set the starting lineup by fastest single-lap time. For this weekend’s races, however, true to dirt racing traditions, there will be multiple qualifying heat races. In each of these heats, drivers earn points, which will be used to set the lineup, for their finishing position and place differential.
The unfortunate aspect of using “passing points” to set the lineup is that drivers that are able to move to the front in their heat races may end up being poor DFS plays. If a driver starts near the back of his heat race and passes everyone, he’ll be starting toward the front for the actual race, thus limiting his place differential upside. On the other hand, drivers who do not perform well in the heat races will have the highest scoring potential for the main event since they will start in the back. That being said, it will be imperative to wait until after the heat races to build lineups!
Let’s take a look at the weekend schedule in Bristol:
As you can see, there will be a tight window between the Truck heat races and the actual race start time. But that will not stop us from having our full offering of Truck Series content. Since the heat races are scheduled on Saturday, all normal Cup Series content will be out Saturday evening or Sunday morning to make it easier on everyone to build lineups throughout the day.
For the Cup Series, past data is relatively limited since this is just the third year racing on dirt since the 1970s. Fortunately for us, however, the Truck Series has had a dirt race on the schedule since 2013. Up until 2020, the race was held at one of the premier dirt tracks in the country, Eldora Speedway. In 2021 though, Bristol and Knoxville hosted races, both of which were unpredictable. Bristol was marred by torrential downpours in the area causing the dirt to coagulate on windshields, threatening driver safety, while Knoxville was a wreckfest and quite frankly, an embarrassment for the sport in my opinion.
It’s important to note that Chase Briscoe, Joey Logano, and William Byron will be pulling double duty this weekend, racing in the Trucks and Cup Series. Briscoe has an extensive dirt racing background, while Byron is hoping to become more comfortable with the dirt since his background is in virtual simulation.There aren’t as many “dirt ringers” as there were last year, so hopefully that helps with predictability.
Final Lap
Third time’s the charm, they say. Hopefully, this weekend is a great product (though I’m sure we’ll still be clamoring for old Bristol when it’s all said and done).
If you haven’t done so already, join our FREE DailyFanRacing Discord, where we are chatting about NASCAR, F1, and MMA everyday.
As usual, for premium members at DailyFanRacing.com, we will have full driver-by-driver breakdowns, expert rankings, and projections for both races this weekend, in addition to a slate strategy article and podcast for Cup.
Have a great week, and we’ll look forward to you winning with us again this weekend!