Joey Logano won his third NASCAR Cup Series Championship in 2024. The 34-year-old driver of the No. 22 Ford for Team Penske heads into the 2025 NASCAR season looking to do what he could not in 2018 and 2022 — defend his title. Logano won three races in 2024. He had seven top finishes last year while placing inside the top 10 in 13 races.
The 2025 NASCAR season opened on Sunday, February 2, with the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. The race, which does not count toward the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series points race, was won by Chase Elliott, who also began the race in the pole position. The first official race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series is the 2025 Daytona 500, which takes place on Sunday, February 16, 2025, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Below are the drivers expected to contend in our NASCAR online betting odds for the 2025 NASCAR Championship. As for some scenarios and possible chances, we cover that briefly, too. So, let us look at the NASCAR Cup Series Bets by the numbers. The preseason betting favorites are Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and Denny Hamlin. As for Logano, he is in the mix, but five drivers have better odds than him to win the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series championship.
The winner of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship, Kyle Larson, was one of the betting favorites to win the 2024 title after placing second to Ryan Blaney in 2023. The driver of the No. 5 Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports fell short last year, finishing the season short of the final four with a sixth-place showing.
Larson won four races in 2024 despite leading the most laps of the season (1,700) and having the most stage wins (12). Larson had 15 top-five finishes and placed inside the top 10 a total of 18 times. The 32-year-old finished the season strong with third and fourth-place showings in the season’s final two races.
Larson said of his 2024 showing, “I think we had a great year. You led the series in a lot of categories, most all the categories, so, yeah, it was a little disappointing to not get the chance to race for a championship at Phoenix, but at the same point, I understand the format.
“I really wasn’t that upset during the week of Phoenix because I knew no matter the result, we were going to end the season with the most wins. And to me, these days, that’s as important as winning a championship.”
Christopher Bell began racing in the NASCAR Cup series in 2020 when he placed 20th. In 2021, he moved to Joe Gibbs Racing and ended the year in 12th place. Bell made an enormous jump in 2022, finishing the season in the No. 3 spot. Since then, Bell has slipped one place at the end of the year, finishing 4th in 2023 and 5th in 2024. The 30-year-old looks to end that slide in 2025.
Bell had an excellent year in 2024, winning three races, placing inside the top five 15 times and earning a season-leading 23 top-10 finishes. He also wrapped up the year with the second most laps lead with 1,145 and 11 stage wins.
The driver of the No. 20 Toyota has started each of the past two years by finishing in third place in the Daytona 500.
Competing in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2005, the 44-year-old Denny Hamlin is still looking for his first NASCAR Cup Series Championship. Hamlin’s best finish came in 2010 when he placed second to Jimmie Johnson. In the past 11 years, Hamlin has only finished the season outside of the top 10 on one occasion, and that came in 2018 when he placed 11th. Hamlin wrapped up 2024 in eighth place.
The driver of the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, Hamlin had three wins, 12 top-five finishes and 18 top-10 placements in 2024 while leading the third-most laps with 943.
“The first few days was a shock, but I’m moving on,” Hamlin said after the 2024 season and announcement that Chris Gabehart would not be crew chief for his team in 2025. “There’s nothing I can do to change anything that happened, and JGR is doing what they feel is best for, them and I totally understand that. And if all of our program gets better, the 11 car’s gonna run better as well, right? And I think that all of us, all the teams, knew that we needed to have better results than what we had at the end of the year. They feel like this is the change they need to [make] to get that and that the 11 team will benefit from those changes.”
Despite falling short of winning in 2024, Larson was the best driver throughout the season. There’s no reason to expect him to have a fall off in 2025.
Kyle Larson is the betting pick to win the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
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