500 Laps Under the Lights of Bristol
NASCAR's Cup Series is at The Last Great Colosseum tonight for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race. With 500 laps, 266.5 miles, this concrete oval is the sight for the third race of The Chase. At the time of writing this, race start time is set for 6:30 central with coverage on USA.
Bristol was one of Kyle Busch's best and favorite tracks. Of current active drivers he hold the most wins here with 8. All time Kyle is in 5th for most wins here, with Darrell Waltrip at 12 wins and Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, Cale Yarborough all with 9 wins ahead of him. Samatha Busch has spoken about how much love Kyle had for Bristol and we are seeing him honored there tonight with Ty Gibbs driving an honorary paint scheme. (This scheme won as my favorite of the week)
We saw a lot of movement in the standings after later week's race at Gateway (World Wide Technology Raceway). With that movement we didn't see a lot of drivers adding points, which is interesting to me as a newbie. This week I anticipate strategy of winning stages to be higher than before on everyone's plan. There are three stages tonight, Stage 1 & 2 are each 125 laps and the final stage is 250. With both practice and qualifying canceled yesterday pit strategy will be game time decisions and could cause a lot of excitement.
On to what you all are here for, my Pick6 play of the week:
Alex Bowman - Finishing Position Better than 14.5: Alex has covered this line in 4 of the last 5 races. He also has covered this line in 4 of the last 6 races at Bristol. With there being no qualifying the metrics have him starting P6, combine that with the consistency we have see from him recently and at this track I feel like this line will be an easy cover.
Bubba Wallance - Finishing Position Better than 15.5: Bubba has been pretty up and down all season which has made me stay away from betting him. He is starting P10 tonight, has finished above this line in 3 of the last 6 races at Bristol, and covered it in 3 of the last 5 races of the season. His spotter Freddie Kraft has said that Bristol's spotter stand sucks but I don't think Bubba needs Freddie to help him cover this line for us.
Chris Buescher - Finishing Position Worse than 12.5: My heart really didn't want to take this play because Chris is in such a cool paint scheme, but he hasn't covered this line since Iowa, has an average finish at Bristol of 17.9, and has not covered this line at a Bristol night race since 2023. Again, great paint scheme but not great finishes.
Brad Keelowski - Finishing Position Worse than 13.5: I don't want to say that better against Brad is easy money, but Rubbin Is Racing's own Quigs has only lost money betting on Brad. He has covered this line in 2 of the last 6 races. I will say, Brad has raced here 30 times (which just means he's old), has won here 3 times (last win was in 2020), and has an average finish of 15.6 here. Sorry not sorry Brad but I can't take you to cover this line.
Christopher Bell - Finishing Position Better than 6.5: Mr. Bell was last year's Bristol night race winner and in the last 5 Bristol night races has finished 1, 5, 3, 4, 29. In the last 11 races this season he has covered this line in 8 of them. It feels simple and I'm not going to over think it.
Ty Gibbs - Finishing Position Better than 6.5: I am someone who fully believes in ghosts, spirits, and all things relating to those who have passed on watching over to help the ones they love. with Ty driving a car covered in memories of Kyle Busch as a driver, father, husband, friend, leader, and role model I fully believe that Kyle will be pushing Ty as close to the lead as possible. Ty has covered this line in 6 of the last 9 races, is starting P13, and at Bristol night races he has an average of moving 5.4 positions from his starting position.
W Alyssa!! Riding 🫡