Driver Recommendations for 2010 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway
Posted by chadmusselman on March 14th, 2010
Bristol Motor Speedway is like a ½ mile bumper-car track. The cars string out almost all the way around the track and everyone is driving in traffic. By the end of the race tempers are flaring, fuses are short, and the smallest bumps can set a driver off. There should be good action and plenty of aggressive driving. We’ll have to see if NASCAR’s “talk” with Brad Keselowsi and Carl Edwards cools off that situation, or if Brad will want to get one more bump in on Carl.
Almost all of the recommendations this week are off to bad starts to the 2010 season, but have done well at Bristol the past couple years. Hopefully this is the track that they get things headed in the right direction and turn their 2010 season around.
This Week’s Recommendations:
Chaser: Denny Hamlin
Denny hasn’t had a good start to the 2010 season sitting 22nd in points with a 17th place finish at Daytona the best so far. Bristol could be the track that he gets things going in the right direction. He has scored 4 consecutive top tens here and has an average finish of 11.6 in 8 career races (5th best among active drivers).
Alternate Chaser: Ryan Newman
Ryan has been awful this season. His 17th place finish in Atlanta was his best this season and is way down in 29th in the points standings. Ryan is too good of a driver to wander that far down in the standings. He has to turn things around, and could get a start on it this weekend. He does have 4 top tens in his last 5 races here. He may not be in contention to win the race, but should finish in the top ten.
Kyle Busch
There’s no on hotter at Bristol than Kyle Busch. He won both races here in 2009, and has finished in the top ten in 7 of the last 8 races. He also has 3 career wins at Bristol making his career average finish 10.2, 2nd best among active drivers. Kyle’s start to the season has been mediocre at best, but like Denny Hamlin, look for Kyle to begin to hit his stride in Bristol.
Matt Kenseth
Unlike the other recommended drivers this week, Matt is off to a red-hot start in 2010. He’s averaging a 5.5 place finish in the first 4 races. He also does well at Bristol. He has the 9th best average finish among active drivers (13.1) and has finished in the top ten in 3 of the last 4 here, with two career wins. There’s no reason to believe he’ll cool off this weekend.
Dark Horse: Marcos Ambrose
Marcos only has two races of experience at Bristol, but he’s finished in the top ten in both of them (3rd and 10th). I don’t know how he did it, but give him credit for getting it done. If he can keep his car clean and out of the wrecks that are bound to happen he may be able to get another top ten. It’s obvious he’s comfortable here.
Not too sure how I found this blog but glad I did find it. Think I was looking for something else on google. Not sure I agree 100% with what you say, but have bookmaked and will pop back to read to see if you add any more posts. Good blog
Not sure if I would not include the Hendrick drivers Jimmie and Mark in recommendations because they both finished top ten in both of last years races at this track. They also have had a great start this year as well. Thanks for your blog though, always good to get another opinion. I have 4th pick in my league this week so it looks like it will be the 18, 5, 11, or 48 as my pick depending on who is left after the first 3 guys pick. Cheers.
Nate
[...] Driver Recommendations For The Food City 500 At Bristol Motor Speedway – Chad Musselman [...]
My recommendations weren’t doing that great, but the wreck with 156 laps to go didn’t help at all. Marcos Ambrose was running very strong and seemed to be on his way to a top ten finish, but was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Hopefully the recommendations I made that are still in the race can use this wreck to their advantage to move up and get a better finish.