Bristol Bass Pro Shops Night Race Fantasy NASCAR Confidence Rankings / Post Practice Predictions

On Saturday night under the lights, NASCAR will be racing at Bristol for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race! Bristol is “The World’s Fastest Half Mile” and it’s been described as flying a jet fighter in a gymnasium. Bristol also marks the end of round #1 of the Playoffs, and four drivers will get eliminated! Desperate drivers do desperate things, so look for the intensity to go up.

On Friday, NASCAR held practice for the teams. Make sure you check out our Bristol Practice Notes, Bristol Group Practice Speed Rankings, Bristol 10,15,20,25 and 30 Lap Average Speed Cheat Sheet and Bristol Practice Speeds and 10 Lap Averages. 

Here’s the Bristol Starting Lineup/ Qualifying results.

Bristol Night Race Full Field Fantasy Rankings

1) Denny Hamlin
Start 6th / Projected Finish Range 1-6 / Dominator Potential – Medium-High
Bristol Outlook – Four-time Bristol winner, Denny Hamlin will be tough to beat in the Bristol Night Race and there’s no question he’ll be going all out and racing hard. In the Next Gen, Hamlin has 2-wins, a 3.4 average finish, the 2nd best Driver Rating and ranks 2nd in terms of Next Gen Speed Rankings. This spring, Hamlin was elite and finished runner-up. In the race, Hamlin had a 3rd place average running position, earned the 2nd best Driver Rating and then finished 2nd overall. In terms of speed analytics, Hamlin had the fastest car late in a run and ranked 2nd in terms of Total Speed Rankings. Last summer, Hamlin ran great throughout but I also think he eased up a little bit to play it safe. In the race, Hamlin finished 4th, had a 4.6 average running position and had the 4th best Total Speed Ranking. Last spring when tire wear was extreme, Hamlin dominated late, racing his way to victory lane. In the race, Hamlin had a 5.0 average running position, earned the best driver rating and led the most laps (163). In terms of speed stats, Hamlin ranked 3rd for Total Speed Rankings and then 4th for Speed Late In A Run. In summer 2023, Hamlin was impressive and raced his way to victory lane. In the race, Hamlin started 2nd, was caught speeding on pit road during Stage #1 around lap 70 while running in 2nd, rallied to finish 4th in Stage #2, led 142 laps and earned the 2nd best Driver Rating. In practice, Hamlin was mentioned to be one of the best by Jeff Burton. In an interview, Hamlin said he was good and just needs a few small tweaks.
DraftKings $11,000/ FanDuel $13,500

Further Recommended Reading = Bristol Finish Projections, DraftKings Bristol Scoring Projections, FanDuel Bristol Scoring Projections, Bristol Quick Rankings 

2) Kyle Larson
Start 5th / Projected Finish Range 1-6 / Dominator Potential – Medium-High
Bristol Outlook – Kyle Larson’s a super-elite performer at Bristol and the road to victory lane likely goes thru him in the Night Race. At Bristol, Larson’s a 3-time winner, highlighted by back-to-back dominate wins. In the Next Gen over the combined Bristol races, Larson has the best average finish (2.8), the best Driver Rating, the best Next Gen Speed Ranking, the best average running position (5.1) and he’s averaged leading 189.2 laps per race. This spring, Larson put on a display of domination and absolutely smoked the field. In the race, Larson won Stage #1, won Stage #2, led 411 laps, earned the best Driver Rating and easily raced his way to victory lane. In terms of Total Speed Rankings, Larson ranked #1, having fielded the fastest car on the track over all four segments of the race. Last summer, Larson was the class of the field and raced his way to victory lane. In the race, Larson won Stage #1, won Stage #2, had a perfect Total Speed Ranking, came close to having a perfect Driver Rating, had a 1.1 average running position and led 462 laps. In spring 2024, Larson had a great performance despite it not being incident free. In the race, Larson finished 2nd in Stage #1, finished 8th in Stage #2, had an 8.4 average running position and then finished 5th. Around lap 370 during a caution while running in 4th, Larson got an equipment interference penalty. In the three races prior to that, Larson finished 2nd in 2023, 5th in 2022 and then 1st in 2021 (Led 175 laps).
DraftKings $11,500/ FanDuel $14,000

3) Ryan Blaney
Start 2nd / Projected Finish Range 1-6 / Dominator Potential – Medium-High
Bristol Outlook – Look for Ryan Blaney to be strong at Bristol and be a driver to be reckoned with. Over the last two at Thunder Valley, Blaney has the 3rd best average finish (5.5), the 4th best Driver Rating, the 5th best Average Running Position and his Speed Ranking is 6.0. This spring, Blaney was a factor and ran an out of sync pit strategy race late, running long in hopes of catching a caution and trapping a lot of the field a lap down. In the race, Blaney started 5th, finished 7th in Stage #1, finished 8th in Stage #2, had a 6.4 average running position, led 48 laps and then finished 5th overall. In terms of speed stats, Blaney ranked 3rd for Speed Late In A Run and had the 4th best Total Speed Ranking. Last summer, Blaney started 22nd, finished 9th in Stage #2 and then finished 6th when the checkered flag waved. Additionally, Blaney had the 8th best Total Speed Ranking and the 8th best Driver Rating. Last spring, Blaney started on the pole, finished 6th in Stage #1, was caught speeding during a caution in Stage #2 while running in 10th, got shuffled out of line in the last Stage around lap 394 while running just short of the top ten and then finished 16th overall. In terms of Total Speed Rankings, Blaney ranked 8th. In practice, Blaney liked his car and in Group 2, he ranked #1 for 10,15,20,25 and 30-lap averages.
DraftKings $10,700/ FanDuel $13,000