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 clear✨ly been the 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

He may have come up one spot sho🌜rt, but Reddick now has a ton of momentum after getti🔜ng 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 i🍃n the field.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr: 8

The veteran dirt racer and Daytona 500 𝕴champion scored his best result of the seaso💖n since the Great American Race.

Chase Briscoe: 7

Briscoe ran up front for most ofℱ the night but found the wall late 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 sco🎐red🅠 yet another under-the-radar top-ten.

Martin Truex Jr: 8

This was somewhat of a surprise, but kudos to Tru🌊ex𒐪 and the No. 19 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 H🌱arvick performed well in his final dirt r🧔ace.

Michael McDowell: 8

Credit to Front Row Motorsports f𓆏or having both of their cars♍ inside the top ten.

Ty Gibbs: 8

The rookie did well, just missing oꦫut on a top-ten finish.

Bubba Wallace: 7

Aside from his spin early i🧔n the race, it was a good weekend for Bubba, who won his Heat race last night.

William Byron: 7

The hottest driver in the series was cooled down a bit tonight, partly because of hard co🌠ntact 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 just not a great ni꧋ght for RFK Racing.

Austin Cindric: 6

Expectꩲations may hav🌃e been slightly higher, but it was a rough night for all three Penske drivers.

Denny Hamlin: 7

A mediocre 💛night quickly went sꦏouth with a late spin. He was clearly the slowest of the four JGR cars.

Ryan Blaney: 8

A potential sඣolid finish went out the window on the𒁏 final restart when he was spun up front by Briscoe.

Ryan Preece: 4

Preece has already been struggling this season, and d🌠id himself no favors tonight by trying 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 ba🎃llpark anyway.

Ross Chastain: 5

Much like 🐻his Trackhouse teammate, Chastain had nothing for the rest of the field tonight.

Alex Bowman: 5

Known for his prowess on dirt, 𝄹more was expecওted of Bowman in this event.

Kyle Busch: 8

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

Kyle Larson: 8

ꦰLarson dominated the opening stage and had the race well in hand until Preece put him into the wa♑ll intentionally, multiple times.

Joey Logano: 3

It just wa🧔sn’t Joey’s night, as he was collected in multiple incidents and p♉enalized on pit road.

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