Jimmie Johnson finally won his first race of 2017 in Texas this past week, becoming the sixth winner in seven races thus far this season.
What does the race on April 23 at Bristol Motor Speedway have in store for us bettors looking to cash in from the Food City 500? Let’s take a look below at the drivers worth taking note of in Tennessee as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series continues its year-long trek with what should be another thrilling race at Thunder Valley.
Another week, another shoutout from us for Kyle Busch. The younger of NASCAR’s two Busch brothers has had nearly just as much success as his elder sibling at Bristol (more on Kurt below), having won the Food City 500 three times and five races at BMS overall. Not only that, but his 529 laps led at Thunder Valley is the most amongst all active drivers over the past three years.
Considering that Kyle has four-straight top-15 finishes and two top-threes over the last four races, he’s definitely in great shape to win his first race of 2017.
Kyle Larson may not have taken the checkered flag this past week, but having four runner-up finishes through seven races this season proves that he always means business in every event. That goes without saying that Larson already has a win under his belt from a couple of weeks ago at Fontana – his first win of his young career – and that he’s yet to finish outside of the top 20 this entire year.
If you like to ride the hottest of hands for your bets, look no further than than the Chip Ganassi Racing standout who has taken the Cup Series by storm.
The last time that Jimmie Johnson won at Bristol was back in 2010, and he’s not really conquering the tracks this season with only two top-10 finishes thus far including his win in Texas.
Nevertheless as history tells us, the future NASCAR Hall-of-Famer needs just one victory to ignite a streak and humble the younger drivers in the circuit. Johnson has pulled off an impressive 11 back-to-back wins over his career, which makes him a solid dark horse pick once again for the upcoming race.
If there’s one race that Kurt Busch can rediscover his past glories, it would be here at the Food City 500. The 38-year-old has won this event four times in his career for a total of five victories at BMS, and his third-place finish from 2016’s installment of the race shows that he’s still comfortable maneuvering the ins and outs of Thunder Valley.
Busch has relatively cooled off since winning the Daytona 500. Still, he secured his third top-10 finish of the season last week in Texas and has an extra week off to size the field up better and continue his resurgent campaign.
It’s pretty safe to say that we can put Aric Almirola’s stunning fourth-place finish at Daytona this past January in the rear-view mirror already. Since that race, the Florida native has failed to crack the top 10 on all six occasions.
Things won’t get any easier for Almirola at Bristol, either. After finishing a career-best third place at BMS in 2014, he hasn’t found another top-10 finish on the course in five succeeding trips.
Writer’s Prediction
Kyle Busch (+550) finally secures his first win of the season.
