2025 NASCAR Championship Odds Preview

With last night’s Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, NASCAR’s Cup Series unofficially kicked off the 2025 season and just less than two weeks remain until the official season kicks off with the 67th running of the Daytona 500. As everyone knows, the 2024 campaign concluded with Joey Logano earning his 3rd Cup Series Championship and also earned Team Penske their 3rd straight championship. At 34 years old, Logano currently stands as the most decorated Cup Series Champion on the active roster and should have a strong possibility to add to his prestigious resume before he hangs up the helmet.

While Logano, Kyle Busch, and Denny Hamlin have become the old school style veterans in the sport, there are a ton of young drivers that are trying to climb the ranks and get into the championship echelon of competitors. Drivers like Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, and William Byron are just a few of the names that should contend for championships consistently in the years ahead. The question is will one of those drivers break through for a championship in 2025? Will Denny Hamlin break the stereotype of the greatest driver to not win a championship? Or could the Cup Series produce a somewhat surprise champion this season?

After all, NASCAR’s current playoff format is ripe for the opportunity to produce a surprise winner and it is bound to happen at some point. While betting on a future champion remains difficult, I do want to take the time to review the championship odds throughout NASCAR’s touring series for the 2025 season. We will preview championship odds for the Craftsman Truck Series, Xfinity Series, and Cup Series while providing some thoughts and potential betting insight for anyone wanting to consider placing some early action towards NASCAR’s 2025 champions. With that being said, let’s jump into the discussion and breakdown the championship field for the major touring series!

Craftsman Truck Series

The Craftsman Truck Series has a pretty stacked field of drivers that will compete for a championship this season. Last year, Corey Heim, Christian Eckes, and Ty Majeski were the class of the series throughout the season and Majeski seemingly was the underdog of the group. However, Majeski performed extremely well on the short tracks last season which helped him secure the championship in the finale at Phoenix. This year, both Heim and Majeski return to full-time Truck Series competition and will undoubtedly be heavy favorites to bring home the hardware. Heim led the series with 6 overall wins in 2024 and perhaps has an even higher ceiling in 2025.

While Christian Eckes has graduated to Xfinity Series competition, Chandler Smith and Daniel Hemric are prestigious names that will join the Truck Series full-time. Hemric is a former Xfinity Series Champion and Smith had a lot of success in Xfinity Series competition despite losing his ride due to sponsorship concerns. With the additional return of full-time drivers like Ben Rhodes (two-time champion), Grant Enfinger, and Layne Riggs; the Truck Series should be pretty stout on the scale of competition. While Heim and Majeski will be rightful favorites, there is simply not enough value in their current championship odds. However, Daniel Hemric and Grant Enfinger are interesting options at less than 10-1 odds who both have the talent and the equipment to contend this season.

Xfinity Series

After so many close calls, Justin Allgaier finally secured his first Xfinity Series Championship in 2024. Allgaier is the veteran of the series that always seems to be in championship consideration but as always the Xfinity Series field keeps replenishing strong young talent. Before we dive into the new talent, the Xfinity Series will also have several veterans in the likes of Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed who have established themselves as legitimate contenders.

However, this year’s Xfinity Series field is absolutely stacked with young talent moving to various teams and organizations. Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch will compete full-time with J.R. Motorsports, Taylor Gray will be in the no. 54 for Joe Gibbs Racing, Harrison Burton was demoted to full-time Xfinity Series competition, Christian Eckes joined Kaulig Racing for full-time action, and that only scratches the surface of all the team and driver changes that will shake up the Xfinity Series in 2025.

Needless to say, the Xfinity Series has the potential to be the best series with a wide array of emerging talent and predicting a champion seems highly unlikely. With that being said, bettors should pay close attention to Connor Zilisch and Jesse Love as underdog contenders. Love will be entering his 2nd season following an impressive rookie campaign and Zilisch may be the best young talent in the sport. For those reasons, Zilisch and Love are worthy of championship consideration at their current odds.

Cup Series

As far as I could dig into the history books, I did not come across one example of a Cup Series Champion that was greater than 15-1 odds prior to the start of the season and that was a result of Kurt Busch’s somewhat surprising championship all the way back in 2004. Simply put, the Cup Series rarely produces “surprise” champions and I highly doubt that trend will change in the near future. For the 2025 Cup Series, there is not a ton of change in the form of drivers. Chase Briscoe replaces Martin Truex Jr (retired) in the no. 19 at JGR, Riley Herbst (rookie) joins 23XI Racing, and there has been some movement with the former Stewart-Haas Racing cars which is now just a one-man team with Cole Custer and rebranded Haas Factory Team. Throw in the full-time return of AJ Allmendinger and move to full-time competition with Shane Van Gisbergen, the Cup Series roster is not too different especially when examining the top teams/drivers.

More importantly, I have just never found betting on the Cup Series Championship, prior to the beginning of the season, a very successful strategy. We simply need to allow for change variance throughout the season before we can feel highly confident in a championship prediction and even at times that is subject to change once we get to Phoenix. However if I had to promote some suggestions based on current betting odds, Chase Elliott (10-1) and Christopher Bell (6-1) are the drivers that I would personally target. Elliott is coming off a relatively disappointing season but is still among the top drivers in the sport which he proved with his victory at the Clash. Meanwhile, Bell posted better performance averages than any driver in the Cup Series in 2024 and I firmly believe he will be one of the top guys in the series for the next several years. Add in the strength that the Toyota teams have shown, Bell becomes one of the only “favorites” that I would consider for early betting action!