Much to the delight of a certain author of this article, NASCAR has ditched the dirt and is returning to the pavement for the spring race at Bristol.
That's right, Sunday's Food City 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX) will be back where it should be, requiring drivers to compete for 500 laps around a very tight, but lightning-fast Bristol Motor Speedway.
The racing here can be incredibly exciting, yet hard to handicap at the same time.
This doesn't mean that we won't be able to pinpoint the fastest cars, but at a track like Bristol, it's easy for drivers to make mistakes and find trouble while taking out a handful of cars that did nothing wrong except for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I'll delve more into outrights when we get into the weekend, but right now I'm going to throw a small bet on a massive triple-digit longshot before cars hit the track on Saturday.
Let's get weird.
(Race fans: North Carolina sportsbooks apps are now live! Bet on NASCAR at Bristol this weekend at legal sportsbooks!)
NASCAR Odds, Pick for Bristol
*NASCAR odds as of Wednesday morning
Todd Gilliland has been surprisingly good at Bristol throughout this NASCAR career, and I'm not solely talking about the Cup Series.
In four Truck Series starts on Bristol's pavement, Gilliland has finishes of fifth, ninth, 14th and 10th.
In addition, the Front Row Motorsports driver has come home 18th and 16th in two Cup Series races on this surface.
I know, those finishes probably don't blow you away, but it's important to consider two points here:
- Gilliland's team, Front Row Motorsports, has reportedly been bumped up to Tier 1 status with Ford this season, and we've seen improved performance from both team drivers already this season.
- Gilliland's odds are 500-1 to win
Now, I'm not betting him to win the race, but am instead taking a crack at Gilliland to finish as the top Ford at 150-1 odds.
We've seen from the data above that Gilliland has easily been a top-20 driver at Bristol in the Cup Series and even better in lower series with better equipment.
It's reasonable to assume that his equipment this weekend will be the best it has ever been at Bristol in NASCAR's top series as well, and all it takes is a solid run with some chaos, which is certainly possible in Thunder Valley, to give Gilliland a shot to bring it home ahead of his fellow Fords.
At 150-1 odds, this bet is clearly unlikely to win, but there is a path to get there, and at the very least, it's a fun bet, isn't it?
The bet: Todd Gilliland (150-1) for Top Ford via bet365
