NASCAR Bristol Favorites: Kyle Larson Leads JGR Duo of Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell Heading Into Weekend

Up next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series calendar is the spring race at the Bristol Motor Speedway. The 500-lap race at the ‘Last Great Colosseum’ will be a crucial stop in the championship chase and will see yet another driver fix his spot in the playoffs. However, not very surprisingly, it is someone already past that line who is the favorite to emerge victor.

According to the numbers from DraftKings Sportsbook, Kyle Larson – the Las Vegas winner – is the most favored driver to win at Bristol with outright odds of +450. Close on his heels are the Joe Gibbs Racing duo, Denny Hamlin (+500) and Christopher Bell (+550). Notably, Bell won at the Phoenix short track last Sunday.

Larson’s name pops up high on the list with reason. He finished his last three races at the concrete track inside the top five and won the one in 2021. With his Bristol record behind the #5 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro impeccably clean, there are little doubts that he will be a challenger for the win.

Hamlin is the speedway’s most recent winner. He won there last September and trailed his victory with the infamous “I beat your favorite driver” chant. Heading back to the venue that turned him into a villain for thousands of eyes in NASCAR, he will want to keep up the aggression and pull in another win.

Bell’s biggest advantage going to the Colosseum is his momentum. He won at Phoenix and also has a good recent record at Bristol, having finished his last two races there inside the top five. His #20 Toyota Camry XSE was nearly flawless on Sunday.

Hopes will be that it will be so again over the coming weekend.

What to expect from the 0.533-mile Bristol short track on Sunday?

Bristol Motor Speedway is running a spring race on its concrete surface after three years. In 2021, it chose to convert its surface for the spring races to dirt as an experiment towards bettering the race experience. After mixed results from the gamble, it now returns to the traditional paved oval. So, what does this mean for the drivers?

Christopher Bell said to NASCAR, “Whenever you hit a good lap [in Bristol] it feels really good. It’s hard to do. It’s very hard to do because you’re pushing the car very hard and one slip means a lot of time loss crashing.” 

Ross Chastain picked up, “Stuff’s happening so fast and when crashes do happen it is hard to get stopped. I piled in the crashes there plenty of times. We’re going so fast and things can’t slow down. It’s a small track.”

The upcoming race is the second short-track event of the year. In the view that the grid will return to Bristol later for a more pressured race, teams will hope to maximize their takeaways this Sunday.