Qualifying for the Food City 500 at Bristol begins at 3:40 EST Friday on the Speed Channel
by Yomonte of Predictem.com
The qualifying matchups are pretty tough this week anywhere you look. Most could go either way by looking at the stats. We are going into back to back short tracks starting with Bristol, and then Martinsville, which is actually the shortest track on the schedule the week after Bristol.
Scott Riggs #10 car owned by GEM (Gillett Evernham Motorsports), was taken over this year by Patrick Carpentier and leaves Scott in a Haas #66 for the 2008 series. Not sure if Gene Haas is out of jail yet, but his cars have never been contenders. Haas CNC Racing is the last stop for drivers before going Nascar Truck Series.
Jeremy Mayfield, who was Riggs teammate at GEM, also races for Haas.
Dave Blaney -115 over Scott Riggs -115 at 5Dimes is the only match up that has real value, and the only one, after looking at the stats, didn’t look like a coin flip.
Last year at Bristol, Blaney netted a 7th and a 5th starting spot in the two races at this .533 mile track beating Scott both times. Blaney is still showing the consistency of qualifying in his Bill Davis Toyota as he did last year. In the last ten races between Bristol and Martinsville, Blaney has qualified ahead of Riggs 9 of the 10. Bottom line and key to this wager is that Riggs has taken a step down this season going to Haas CNC Racing.
Check around as this match up should be at most Nascar Sportsbooks. I’m taking Dave Blaney -115 over Scott Riggs.