NASCAR Food City 500 preview in 3 minutes

Everything you need to know about Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, in three minutes:

Three things to watch

1. There’s been no beating Kyle Busch recently, and all eyes will be on him to see if he can win his third straight Cup race.

2. If it’s not Busch, will it be another Joe Gibbs Racing driver? They’re all starting near or at the front (Carl Edwards on the pole for a second consecutive week, Matt Kenseth on the front row, Denny Hamlin fourth and Busch fifth).

3. Although he’s starting third, this might not be the best time for Joey Logano to win his first race of the season. Although he has won two night races at Bristol (in August), he’s never finished higher than 16th in Bristol’s spring race.

Worth mentioning

▪  Danica Patrick wasn’t happy when Hamlin hit her Chevy in Saturday morning’s practice. “Man, I love Denny, but he makes a lot of mistakes behind me,” said Patrick. “I don’t know if he misjudged it or I was going slower than he thought, but I put my finger out the window and pointed him by. I had no intention to race him. I was not fast enough.”

▪  Bristol’s “Colossus” – the world’s largest center-hung scoreboard/video board – makes its Cup debut. It will probably look cooler during August’s night race, however, as well as in September’s Virginia Tech-Tennessee college football game.

▪  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has been one of the season’s surprising early stories (with one top-5 and two top-10s). Bristol is his best track, too, with an average finish of 11.2.

Best bets

Three picks for your fantasy team:

Kyle Busch: Not only has he won two straight races, but he’s also good at Bristol (five career victories).

Matt Kenseth: Has a good starting spot (second) from which to win his first race of the season.

Jimmie Johnson: Busch has overshadowed Johnson’s season (he’s won twice, too). He’ll start sixth Sunday.

He said it

“It’s definitely a lot more difficult (at Bristol) than most other places just because the laps are so short and so quick, and you always have to keep in mind of cars moving up the race track and finding speed.” – Ryan Blaney.

N@SCAR

This story was originally published April 16, 2016 at 4:47 PM with the headline "NASCAR Food City 500 preview in 3 minutes."