Food City Dirt Race Picks, Odds & Predictions 4/17/2022

by Guy Bruhn - 4/15/2022

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Food City Dirt Race

Sunday, April 17, 2022

7:00 PM EST

Bristol Motor Speedway

Bristol, TN

FS1

NASCAR will head to Bristol, TN this weekend for the Food City Dirt Race and it's the only one of its kind this season.

The only other dirt race in Bristol was won by Joey Logano in 2021. During the race last season, there was a mix of sunshine and dust which made for a very tough field of vision for drivers. This season, the race will take place at night to try to avoid both of these issues. The dirt is difficult enough to race on without all the extra factors. Not all of the drivers are a fan of the dirt tracks and most notably, Kyle Busch let his opinion be known about it. That said, nobody knows how things will transpire this weekend with the next generation vehicles. We just started getting a feel for these cars after seven weeks so it should be interesting to see how this goes.

That said, all of the above variable are going to make it tough to make a pick on this race. Joey Logano is a clear favorite as he is the only driver to win this race on dirt. Kyle Larson has a solid track record on dirt which puts him up as one of the favorites and Alex Bowman has been preparing for this dirt race since last year with his Winged Sprint Car.

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Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 Recap

Until a late caution sent this race into overtime, Hendrick Motorsports was walking away with the win in NASCAR's first night race at Martinsville Speedway. That said, William Byron was able to survive a final restart and a white flag lap mistake to take the checkered flag at the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400. Out of the 403 laps, Byron led 212 of them and his teammate Chase Elliott led for the first 185 laps. These laps earned Hendrick Motorsports the prestigious title of surpassing 10,000 laps at Martinsville which was the first Cup organization to do that on a single track.

At the end of the 2 lap overtime, Byron crossed the finish line .303 seconds ahead of runner-up Joey Logano. It was a satisfying performance by Logano, but it takes his winless streak up to 37 races and that's something he is working hard to get out of. Coming in at a strong third place finish, Austin Dillon ran strong with Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain rounding out the top-5 finishers of this race.

NASCAR Playoff Standings

William Byron has extended his lead with his second win of the season which puts him at 276 points. Ross Chastain sits in the second spot with 246 points while Alex Bowman (237 points), Chase Briscoe (220 points) and Kyle Larson (201 points) are in the top-5. The eighth spot is held by Chase Elliott with 288 points and a top-5 finish, along with five top-10 finishes. He has yet to win a race, but if he does, he'll shoot towards the top of the standings.

Food City Dirt Race Odds

Kyle Larson - +500
Christopher Bell - +800
Joey Logano - +1000
William Byron - +1200
Martin Truex Jr. - +1200
Chase Briscoe - +1300
Chase Elliott - +1300
Ryan Blaney - +1400
Kyle Busch - +1500
Denny Hamlin - +1500
Tyler Reddick - +1500
Alex Bowman - +1800
Ross Chastain - +2200
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. - +2200
Kevin Harvick - +2500
Daniel Suarez - +2500
Austin Dillon - +4000
Bubba Wallace - +4000
Kurt Busch - +5000
Brad Keselowski - +5000
Austin Cindric - +6600

While Kyle Larson has a great shot at winning, this would be a great opportunity to end his 37-race winless streak. He was the winner of the race last year and has a great shot to do it again. We like Logano to snap that streak this weekend.

Guy's Pick: Take Joey Logano (+1000)

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Food City Dirt Race Picks, Odds & Predictions 4/17/2022

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