On the heels of the most interesting race of the 2019 season, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will head to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend. The high-banked, half-mile will host Sunday’s Food City 500, the second short track of the year. Bristol isn’t nearly as awesome as it was when it was a one-lane, bottom-groove track, but it still has some of the bumping and banging that has made the track popular over the years.
While the reduced-horsepower package that turned last Sunday’s race at Texas into a mini version of a plate race won’t be in play this weekend, we could still see the typical running order shuffled up a bit. Short tracks tend to have higher attrition at baseline, and some of the teams that be behind on the bigger, faster tracks can be competitive at a track like Bristol.
With that in mind, Sunday’s race is golden opportunity to get a little creative with your lineups in the season-long leagues, especially the Driver Group Game and Fantasy Live. Since both these contests limit the number of times you can use each driver, you need to take advantage of any opportunity to post a big point total while saving starts from the bigger names. Bristol provides a chance to do just that.
At the very least, I recommend using some different Group B and C options in the Driver Group game and at least a couple of unconventional plays in Fantasy Live. Depending on how qualifying plays out, you could even be more aggressive than that.
1. Joey Logano, #22 Shell-Pennzoil, Team Penske
His seven Top 10s in the last 10 races at Bristol are tied for the most in the series, and Logano has cracked the Top 15 in his last seven starts here. He is also one of just two drivers with multiple wins here over the last 10 races, and his 335 driver points scored rank second. Logano should be one of the safest plays in all formats this weekend.
