Bristol Fantasy NASCAR Confidence Ranking Picks

1) Chase Elliott (Starting 6th) Nobody is hotter in NASCAR than Chase Elliott, and at Bristol he’ll be tough to beat. He’s run extremely well here, and in recent races he ranks among the best. Over the last three Bristol races, Elliott’s earned the best driver rating twice and his impressive 6.3 average finish underrates him. Last summer at Bristol, Elliott had a great car. He earned the best driver rating, had the best average running position (3.5), finished 5th, led 33 laps and his Green Flag Average Speed ranked as the 4th best. Additionally, Elliott finished 2nd in Stage #1 and finished 6th in Stage #2. Among drivers who didn’t stay out during a late caution in that segment, he was the highest finisher. In spring 2019, Elliott ran well despite his race not being incident free. He started on the pole and led the opening 38 laps until he spun out while leading in a multi-car accident. After that he wasn’t as competitive and he complained about his steering wheel being “heavy” like he had a power steering problem. When the race reached its conclusion he finished 11th, had a 10th place average running position and earned the 10th best driver rating. In summer 2018, Elliott was very competitive and was a contender to win. He earned the best driver rating, finished 3rd, had a 3rd place average running position and led 112 laps. Additionally, he finished 4th in Stage #1 and 2nd in Stage #2. In spring 2018 he finished 29th, but I wouldn’t read into that result. On lap 4 he was involved in a multi-car wreck that doomed him to his poor result. (DraftKings $11300 / FanDuel $13,000 )

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2) Kyle Busch (Starting 7th) Kyle Busch is a super-elite performer at Bristol who’ll tough to beat. He’s an 8-time winner and over the last five races he’s won three times and has only once finished outside the top 4, and in that race he was poised to do that again until trouble struck. Currently at Bristol, Busch has back to back spring wins. Last summer, Kyle Busch was a little off early but his car got better and better as the race progressed. Busch got lapped under green early, but he recovered and finished 4th when the checkered flag waved. In spring 2019, Busch had a great car and raced his way to victory lane. In addition to finishing first he earned the 3rd best driver rating, had a 7th place average running position and led 71 laps. Additionally, he finished 6th in Stage #1 and 5th in Stage #2. In summer 2018, Busch had a great car but finished a misleading 20th. He was involved in an early accident on lap 3, but he rallied back. With 81 laps to go he was up to 3rd and at that time he arguably had the fastest car on the track. Then with 68 laps to go he had contact with Truex Jr. while passing him for 2nd and that likely later led to his flat tire with 20 laps to go which cemented him to his poor result. In spring 2018, Busch raced his way to victory lane from the pole. In the race he led 117 laps, earned the 2nd best driver rating and had a 4th place average running position. I will note if there wasn’t a late caution he likely would’ve finished 2nd. (DraftKings $12,500 / FanDuel $14,000 )

3) Kevin Harvick (Starting 8th) Kevin Harvick is a strong performer at Bristol who’ll be a factor. Harvick had a misleading result last summer, but in the eight races prior to that he had a series best 6.4 average finish. Last summer at “Thunder Valley”, Harvick clearly looked like a top five contender, but he finished a misleading 39th. In the race he led 28 laps, finished 4th in Stage #1, but then shortly before the end of Stage #2 around lap 244 while he was running in 4th he went to the garage because of transmission problems. Last spring he finished 13th. That’s not a horrible result, but it snapped his 7 race top ten streak. It’s important to note, Harvick’s race wasn’t incident free. When the green flag waved he had to serve a pass through penalty because of multiple inspection failures. Then later around lap 50 he made an unexpected pit stop and at that point he was now three laps down. I will note he showed plenty of speed and he actually ran the most fastest laps (82). In summer 2018, Harvick had a great car but finished an asterisk mark 10th. “Performance Wise”, I thought he was top five good, but on lap 185 while he was running in 2nd he had a flat tire and made an unexpected pit stop which dropped him two laps down. In Stage #1 he finished 2nd. In spring 2018, Harvick started in 39th but raced his way up to a 7th place finish. Additionally, he earned the 10th best driver rating and had a 12th place average running position. In the five races prior to that he had results of 8th, 3rd, 1st, 7th and 2nd. (DraftKings $12,200 / FanDuel $12,200 )