Who will win NASCAR's Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway?
Tennessee track was converted to dirt for the race
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It's dirt, baby! Again.
The first Food City Dirt Race was held in 2021. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
For the second year running, Bristol Motor Speedway -- whose slogan is "It's Bristol, Baby" -- has been temporarily converted into a dirt track for its spring NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Truck Series races.
The 250-lap race is split up into three stages, with breaks after the 75th and 150th laps, and no pit stops for fuel or tires are allowed except during the breaks.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The surface is a bit different this year and now features progressive banking and a more uniform surface, but with the new Next Generation cars hitting the red clay for the first time, it's anybody's guess how the race will go.
23,000 cubic yards of dirt were used to convert the track over a two-month period. (Bristol Motor Speedway)
Joey Logano was the surprise winner last year after dirt specialists Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell were involved in a crash early in the race that took them out of contention, but who are the driver's to beat this year?
According to the odds makers at FOX Bet, Larson is the favorite again ahead of Bell and Logano. Chase Elliot, who finished 10th last year and has nine top 10 finishes and a win in 12 starts on concrete surface, is fourth. William Byron, Martin Truex Jr, Chase Briscoe, Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney round out the top 10 to watch.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Pre-race favorite Kyle Larson was wrecked out of contention early in the 2021 race. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Larson ran a late model race at the track in early April said the surface is smoother with more sweeping corner entries that made it easier to run wide open. However, he told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that he thinks NASCAR should remove the windows from the cars to they can put more moisture in the dirt like at dedicated racetracks, which is better to drive on but would stick to the windows and ruin visibility.
"So in my opinion, if we’re not going to take the windshields out, we might as well just never put dirt on Bristol again – which I’m all for not putting dirt on Bristol whether we have windshields or not. I think the racing at Bristol is amazing just as normal," he said.
The NASCAR Truck Series Pinty's Dirt Race is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on FS1 and the NASCAR Cup Series Food City Dirt Race for 7 p.m. ET on FOX.