Bristol Betting Preview: 2017 Food City 500

Kevin Harvick is using same chassis he won with at Bristol in August.

Alright NASCAR, enough of this weekend off stuff. I realize it was Easter and your season runs from February through November with little time off, but it feels like there's an imbalance in my universe when a weekend comes and goes without a Cup race. I'm looking for more pieces of the puzzle in this frustrating season as a bettor and then you guys go and leave me hanging to stew.

But then NASCAR, you redeem yourself with a race on the high-banks of Bristol's half-mile bullring where drama always unfolds with lots of tempers flaring. I love NASCAR drama. Come on drivers, how about a few paybacks for some issues unresolved?

Way to come back strong NASCAR! And thank you for not having this anticipated race coming off a bye not be on another 1.5-mile track. By the time Mother's Day comes around in May, I'll be ready for a race at cookie-cutter Kansas. But Bristol is a great break in between, then next week it's Richmond and then right after that it's Talladega. What an outstanding lineup for the next three weeks.

Although there has been seven races on the season, none of the data gained can be applied to Bristol's unique configuration. Martinsville is a half-mile also and we saw Brad Keselowski win there three weeks ago making him the season leader with two wins. But the big difference with Bristol is the high banking making to set-up requirements completely different from Martinsville. They are as different as two half-mile tracks can be.

Dover is the track I compare the most with Bristol even though it's a 1-mile layout, but the thing that correlates well between the two is the high banking and concrete surface. So when handicapping this weeks race, I don't have a lot to go off of outside of current form and past history at Bristol. Because of the banking, I'll mix in just a dash of what happened at Atlanta, Las Vegas and Texas.

As for past history, the active leaders in wins are Las Vegas' own Busch brothers with five wins each. It's been a while since Kurt Busch won, though. While driving for Jack Roush, he gobbled up wins in bunches to start his career, but the hasn't won there since 2006. Overall, he's led 1.062 laps and has 16 top-10s in 32 starts. While driving for Chevrolet and Dodge, he never won, but he's in a Ford again like he was with all his previous success. He's using a chassis this week that raced twice at Bristol last season and another at Dover accumulating two top-5s.

Read More Here.....Top-5 Finish Prediction on VegasInsider.com