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Food City 500: Power Rankings

Deviating from the dominant 5-6 this race.

By Mark Abell
NASCAR Xfinity Series Food City 300 Photo by Sarah Crabill/Getty Images

The rule I have implemented for myself are:

  1. I will not pick a driver more than 10 times this season
  2. Due to #1 these are “Power Rankings” (in quotations), I’m looking for value here

My general format for my power rankings:

  • Top 2 picks will generally be the favorites, the ones who should be top 5 or top 10 finishes
  • #3 and #4 will be your riskier picks, could be top 5 or bottom 15
  • Pick #5 is the dark horse

Race Information

Race: Food City 500
Laps: 500
Date: April 7th
Venue: Bristol Motor Speedway
2018 Winner: Kyle Busch (3:26:25)
Broadcast: Fox

Course

Bristol Motor Speedway constructed in 1960, the Last Great Colosseum has its roots in authentic racing. This all concrete surfaced oval track features turns at 26-30 degrees with straightaways at 6-10 degrees. It’s short at just over half a mile (0.533) and be prepared for some bumping to occur here. This makes it both amazing to watch and tough to predict as many racers get knocked out mid-race. The sound that emits from this course is amazing.

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Power Rankings

The Favorites

Chase Elliott (1st selection this year) – Finished 16th here last year and 7th here two years ago. He has top 15 finishes in his last five consecutive races.

Jimmy Johnson (3rd selection this year) – Top six finishes each of the last two years here and he has an impressive 5th place finish last week.

High Risk / High Reward

Clint Bowyer (1st selection this year)– Finished in the top 10 each of the last three years at Bristol. He finished 2nd last week and looked absolutely dominant in the process.

Ryan Newman (1st selection this year)– Top 16 finishes each of the last 5 years here. He has had a mixture of success and lackluster results this season but he did have a solid 11th place finish last week.

The Dark Horse

Ricky Stenhouse (1st selection this year) – Top 16 finishes each of the last 5 years here

2019 Results

Favorite: Avg Finish 11th (29th Percent)
High Risk/High Reward: Avg Finish 15th (40th Percent)
Dark Horse: Avg Finish 20th (52nd Percent)