Food City Dirt Race: Power Rankings

Race Information

Race: Food City Dirt Race
Laps: 250
Date: March 28th at 3:00pm
Venue: Bristol Motor Speedway (Dirt Course)
2020 Winner: Brad Keselowski (3:19:02)
Network: Fox

Track

Bristol Motor Speedway (Dirt Course) — The dirt track has been prepared for an exciting 2021 race. At .533 miles, and for the first time since 1970, we will see a main NASCAR circuit dirt race!! This means that in a nutshell you can throw all of my predictions into a giant free for all guess. I have no context or educated guesses here. You better believe drivers will utilize any and all practice times allotted to try to perfect this new race floor. I give some extra credence to racers like Kyle Busch who have a long history with truck races. Pit crews are on notice with new rules of pit stopes around stage breaks and some incidents but not green or yellow flags.

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Favorites

Kyle Busch (third selection this year) — Since 2007, Busch has won at this race five times! He is finally coming around with two top 10 finishes in his last three races this year.

Christopher Bell (first selection this year) — The second year vet out of Oklahoma is having quite the year. Bell had his first win at the road track Daytona race and has three top ten finishes across six races this year. He finished 9th at Bristols first race last year so some rubbing and turning might be right up his alley.

High Risk/High Reward

Ryan Newman (first selection this year) — Newman has nothing but top 15 finishes at the Bristol’s first race over the last three years. He finished as high as 9th in 2019 and with just one top 10 finish under his belt this season, he will welcome a familiar venue.

Austin Dillon (first selection this year) — Dillon has been improving on the regular season Bristol track each year as he gets better within it’s confinements. He finished 15th here in 2018, 14th in 2019 and then jumped up to 6th last year. He has just one finish outside the top 20 this season and he was 3rd at Daytona to start the season and 6th last week at Atlanta. He has learned adeptly how to navigate during some more contact ridden races.

The Dark Horse

Daniel Suarez (first selection this year) — Suarez has had a handful of teen finishes this season. He comes to the Bristol where he finished as high as 8th in 2019 and finished 11th here during the regular season race in 2018.

Fun Fact: There is a wild car as this race was historically a concrete race but converted to dirt this year.

2021 Results
Favorite: Avg Finish 12th (29th Percent)
High Risk/High Reward: Avg Finish 19th (44th Percent)
Dark Horse: Avg Finish 17th (44th Percent)