NASCAR Cup Series: 2022 Food City Dirt Race Preview, Odds, Picks & Predictions

Bristol Dirt Race

NASCAR Cup Series heads to Bristol, Tennessee, this Easter Sunday, April 17, for the 2022 Food City Dirt Race. It will mark the first dirt race of the 2022 season, which will introduce a completely new set of challenges for the drivers to deal with while promising an exciting, muddy, and slippery race for the fans.

As with any dirt race, the 2022 Food City Dirt Race promises to be unpredictable, but we have found a few excellent picks at the offered NASCAR lines for this weekend, which we will look at.

Let’s check the latest news, stats, reports, and NASCAR odds for Food City Dirt Race. We’ve plenty of predictions for you to consider.

Byron Can Keep the Wind in His Sails

Last week, we mentioned how William Byron could be a surprise winner of the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500, and he delivered, securing his second victory of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. But despite his success, Byron heads to Bristol as one of the outsiders.

“This one is for my mom,” said Byron after winning Blue Emu.

“This same weekend last year she had kind of a mini-stroke and was diagnosed with brain cancer. It means a lot to have her here and it’s been a crazy year. But she’s doing great. I kind of felt like she was riding in there with me.”

In the first Food City Dirt Race, Byron started the race in eighth and finished sixth, which isn’t anything spectacular, but still enough to confirm that Byron can race on the surface.  Moreover, he had the fifth-best average driver rating on the day and was inside the top-15 for the entire race.

Obviously, there are other, better drivers on dirt that will attend the 2022 Food City Dirt Race. However, we must keep in mind that Byron is currently the hottest driver in the Cup Series and someone who had a solid showing in 2021, so there is really no reason to doubt him, especially at the NASCAR betting online betting sites are offering on him.

Don’t Sleep On Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has been anything but impressive this season and heads to Bristol with a concerning record. He started the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season with a 28th-place finish at Daytona, adding an impressive 10th-place finish at Fontana.

But it all went downhill since, as Stenhouse Jr. couldn’t finish better than 21st across the next six races. That includes 21st in Las Vegas, 28th in Phoenix, 31st in Atlanta, 37th at COTA, 28th in Richmond, and 27th last weekend in Martinsville.

Obviously, with such figures, it might sound crazy to back Stenhouse Jr. to win this weekend. But there’s more to Stenhouse Jr. than meets the eye.

He has an extensive history on dirt tracks and has proven before that dirt is where he will perform the best. Remember – Stenhouse Jr. finished the 2021 Food City Dirt Race in second place and finished both stages inside the top-10.

Yes, Stenhouse Jr.’s results in 2022 haven’t been the best. But knowing that the 2022 FoodCity Dirt Race is like no other race on the schedule, we can safely ignore his showings so far.

2022 Food City Dirt Race Information

• Race: 2022 Food City Dirt Race
• Location: Bristol Motor Speedway
• Day/Time: Sunday, April 17, 7 pm EDT
• Live stream: NBCSports.com

2022 Food City Dirt Race Betting Lines

2022 Food City Dirt Race Prediction

The main favorites to win the 2022 Food City Dirt Race are Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and Joey Logano, which makes perfect sense. Larson has a lot of history with dirt tracks and is the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion, Bell has achieved plenty on dirt in the past, and Logano is the defending champion of the Food City Dirt Race.

But even though all three are more than capable of winning this Sunday, we’re most excited about Byron and Stenhouse Jr., who you can bet online on at much better odds.

Obviously, there is a reason why the two are priced at higher odds than the aforementioned three, but we would argue that Byron and Stenhouse Jr. are underrated.

Byron is easily the most in-form driver of the 2022 season and has shown enough in 2021 for us to believe he can make something happen this weekend.

Meanwhile, Stenhouse Jr. might have failed to achieve much this season, but he was incredible on this track last year, so we wouldn’t be shocked to see him secure a shock victory in Bristol.

Pick: William Byron to win (+1000)

Pick: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to win (+2200)