NASCAR: Driver Rankings For The 2023 Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway

Crash NASCAR journalist Chad Smith goes through the field to hand out driver ratings for the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Christopher Bell, Bristol Dirt, Joe Gibbs Racing
Christopher Bell, Bristol Dirt, Joe Gibbs Racing

Christopher Bell: 10

Bell has clearly been th✅e best driver in the JGR stable for the last couple of years, and now he could be in the midst of a breakout season.

Tyler Reddick: 10

H♔e may have come up one spot short, but Reddick now has a ton of momentum after getting his season off to a slow start.

Austin Dillon: 9

This was an impressive result for 💃Dillon, who is one of the forgotten dirt racers in the field.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr: 8

The veteran dirt racer and Daytona 500 champion scored his best 🐷resul♈t of the season since the Great American Race.

Chase Briscoe: 7

Briscoe ran up front for most of the night but foღund the wall la﷽te in the race on his own, then spun Ryan Blaney on the last restart.

2023 Bristol Food City Dirt Race Driver Ratings

Justin Haley: 8

The driver that no one ever talks about scored ꦐyet ano𝓡ther under-the-radar top-ten.

Martin Truex Jr: 8

This was somewhat of a surprise, but kudos to Truex and🦄 the No. 1ꦓ9 team for a very strong run.

Todd Gilliland: 8

Another top-ten for Gilliland, who continues to show his true potential in this series🌟.

Kevin Harvick: 7

He was never up contending for the race lead, but Har🌜vick performed well in his fin🅰al dirt race.

Michael McDowell: 8

Credit to Front Row Motorsports for having both of their ไcars ins♏ide the top ten.

Ty Gibbs: 8

The rookie did wꦉell, just missing out on a top-ten finish.

Bubba Wallace: 7

Aside fro𓄧m his spin early in the race, it was a good weekend for Bubba, w🤪ho won his Heat race last night.

William Byron: 7

The hottest driver in the series was cooled down a bit🍷 ton⛄ight, partly because of hard contact early in the race.

Brad Keselowski: 5

It was a brutal night for ✃Keselowski, who spun multiple times.

Chris Buescher: 5

Much like his owner/teammate above, it was jus🃏t not a greಌat night for RFK Racing.

Austin Cindric: 6

Expectations may have been slightly highe♑r, but it was a rough night for all three Penske drivers.

Denny Hamlin: 7

A mediocre night qui🌼ckly went south w𒆙ith a late spin. He was clearly the slowest of the four JGR cars.

Ryan Blaney: 8

A potential solid finish wen♋t out the window on the final restart when he was spun up front by Briscoe.

Ryan Preece: 4

Preece has already been struggling this s𒊎eason, and did himself no favors tonight by t💟rying to extract some revenge on Kyle Larson.

2023 Bristol Food City Dirt Race Driver Ratings

Daniel Suarez: 5

He was taken🍸 out late ༒in the race but Suarez was never in the ballpark anyway.

Ross Chastain: 5

Much like his Trackhouse teammate, Chastain h🃏ad nothing for the rest🎐 of the field tonight.

Alex Bowman: 5

Known for his prowess🦄 on diཧrt, more was expected of Bowman in this event.

Kyle Busch: 8

He ran strong for most of the night, until a mechanical issue took t𒆙he defending race winner out of contention.

Kyle Larson: 8

Larson dominated the opening stage and had the race well in hand until Preece put꧃ him into the wall intentionally, multiple times.

Joey Logano: 3

It just wasn’t Joey’s night, as he was collected ඣin multiple incidents and penalized on p𝐆it road.

Read More