2016 Food City 300 Race Predictions
NASCAR Xfinity Series Betting Preview
Friday August 19th, 7:46PM (EST) at Bristol Motor Speedway
by Jay Horne of NASCARWagers.com, NASCAR Handicapping Service
The Xfinity Series will bring 40 cars to life tonight at Thunder Valley when the green flag is waved for the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. There will be several big names in tonight’s field including the likes of Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, and others. On Wednesday, the Truck Series posted one of the best races of the season that mirrored the old Bristol layout with teams fighting for the bottom of the track. With so many big names in tonight’s field, there are sure to be fireworks and excitement. Take a look as we preview tonight’s race and provide our 2016 Food City 300 race predictions!
Among the storylines tonight will be Kyle Busch who will be seeking an unprecedented 9th victory in the Xfinity Series at Bristol Motor Speedway which would be the most all-time. Busch has been nothing short of dominate at Bristol in all series but in the Xfinity Series he has laid down some truly remarkable numbers. Rowdy has finished in the top 2 positions in his last 6 starts and finished in the top 3 in 11 of his last 12 starts. Those numbers are truly incredible for any type of racing much less for NASCAR’s Xfinity campaign. Tonight Busch will be a big favorite to get the checkered flag again as will be the case for most of the JGR cars considering the fact Erik Jones won the spring race at Bristol earlier this year.
On Thursday, it was the other JGR teammate in Daniel Suarez that topped the leaderboard in the only practice session. Suarez was in position to win the Truck Series race Wednesday night but ran into some late race tire issues. Suarez has a pretty solid resume for Bristol. In 3 career starts, he has posted finishes of 2nd, 5th, and 6th. Obviously, he has some tough competition this evening but he has proved that he can run really well here if you are looking for a driver that could bring value in match-ups or have long shot potential.
Outside of the JGR brigade, Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski are the biggest threats for the win this evening. Despite an 11th place practice effort on Thursday, I still think Larson is due for a victory at Bristol. He has been close several times and has 3 runner-up finishes in 6 career starts. Larson was in position for the win in the spring race but made a mistake which allowed Erik Jones to get by to score the victory. However, Larson is still one of the most talented short track drivers that will be participating tonight and he is going to score one of these Bristol victories sooner or later.
Brad Keselowski does have a Bristol win on his resume but that victory came all the way back in 2008. Since then Keselowski has been 0 in 9 in his last 9 Bristol starts in the Xfinity Series despite a couple of runner-up finishes. Keselowski finished 6th on speed in Thursday’s practice and has to be considered a threat for tonight’s event. However, I do not think he is as big of a threat as the JGR cars or Kyle Larson. Still you never know what can happen at Bristol especially if a driver can gain track position late in the race.
As far as the rest of the field is concerned, I am not sure if I would consider anyone else a true threat to win the race. These Bristol races have been dominated by the likes of Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, and Erik Jones in recent years in terms of laps led. If you are looking for a pair of guys that caught my attention on speed from Thursday, I would consider both Darrell Wallace Jr and Justin Allgaier as guys that should bring value in matchups. Allgaier is a former Bristol winner and posted a 5th place finish in the spring race. Meanwhile, Darrell Wallace Jr has been running well but just does not have the finishes to show for it. I think tonight will be a good opportunity for Wallace and the #6 team to finally get a finish that matches how they have been running.
2016 Food City 300 Race Predictions
Erik Jones +500 (1.5 units)
Kyle Larson +600 (2 units)
Two Team Parlay
Kyle Busch +140 wins Food City 300
Team 2 – Open for Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race
Risking 1 unit to win: TBD
H2H Matchups
Kyle Larson +100 over Daniel Suarez (3 units)
Erik Jones -130 over Brad Keselowski (2 units)
Brendan Gaughan +100 over Darrell Wallace Jr (2 units)
