The NASCAR Cup Series is the top stock car racing promotion in the United States, if not the world.
Stock cars are more similar to street-legal vehicles in that they have closed wheels, are produced by popular car companies Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota, and are purpose-built for the oval-shaped tracks they race on. That's as opposed to other prominent car racing series like Formula 1, where each team custom builds its single-seater, open-wheel car.
Because of the uniform nature of the cars, NASCAR drivers have to be able to find marginal gains on the track. That includes knowing when to hit the gas pedal, timing pit stops, and reacting to changes in the track and movements from other cars.
Ahead of NASCAR's 77th running of the Cup Series, let's take a look at the outright odds.
Kyle Larson | +500 |
Christopher Bell | +550 |
Ryan Blaney | +700 |
Denny Hamlin | +700 |
William Byron | +700 |
Joey Logano | +900 |
Tyler Reddick | +900 |
Chase Elliott | +1000 |
Chase Briscoe | +2000 |
Ty Gibbs | +2000 |
Kyle Busch | +2500 |
Ross Chastain | +2500 |
Kyle Larson, a member of Hendrick Motorsports who won the 2021 Cup Series, is the +500 favorite ahead of the 2025 season.
In 2024, Larson won six races and took five pole positions in 35 starts. He finished sixth overall, with two of his race wins coming at major events in the Las Vegas-based Pennzoil 400 and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Second in the odds is Christopher Bell (+550), who finished fifth last season. Bell drives the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, and his best career finish in the Cup Series was third place in 2022. He has nine career wins in 180 races, including three wins in 2024.
Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, and William Byron are tied for the third-shortest odds in the market (+700).
Blaney, driving the No. 12 Ford for Team Penske, finished second in 2024 with 11 top-five finishes and three wins. One of his wins was in the penultimate race of the playoffs at the Xfinity 500.
Hamlin, a veteran of 686 NASCAR Cup Series races entering the 2025 campaign, drives the No. 11 Camry for 23XI Racing, the team he co-owns with NBA legend Michael Jordan. Hamlin finished eighth in the 2024 season, winning three races.
Byron finished third both last season and in 2023, and he kicked off the campaign with a Daytona 500 win. He drives the No. 24 Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports.
Reigning Cup Series Champion Joey Logano is next in the odds at +900. Logano did not finish in the top five until the seventh race of the season, but he raced well enough in Team Penske's No. 22 Ford to qualify for the playoffs, where he won three races to claim the title.
Tyler Reddick, who finished fourth last year and drives the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing, is tied with Logano at +900. Reddick has eight race wins in six years, but three of those wins came in 2024.
Chase Elliott, who finished seventh in 2024 and drives the No. 9 Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports, is eighth in the odds at +1000 and is the last driver shorter than 20/1.
The next tier of title contenders, from 20/1 to 33/1, are Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman and Chris Buescher.
Odds displayed within this article were correct at the time of writing and are subject to change.