It’s time for Bristol Motor Speedway, baby!
Through the Gears takes you through the best bets heading into the first of two Bristol weekends of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season for this Sunday’s Food City 500.
The two biggest favorites going into this weekend are back-to-back winner and defending winner of the spring Bristol race, Denny Hamlin, and winner of the fall night race, Kyle Larson, both going into the weekend with +490 odds via FanDuel. Both have the best average finishes in the series at Bristol: 3.3 for Larson and 3.8 for Hamlin.
Hamlin’s teammate Christopher Bell has next-best odds at +650. Bell is a winner at Bristol’s dirt configuration and has a 5.5 average finish at the track. He is still looking for his first win on the concrete, just like Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney at +800 odds.
The best of the rest of the more-favored drivers are Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott and William Byron. Elliott comes off a top five performance at Martinsville Speedway and enters the weekend with the third-best Next-Gen average finish at 4.8 but has yet to taste victory with the car/track combination.
Among the underdogs, perhaps surprisingly, is Chris Buescher. The 2022 fall night race winner enters the weekend with +3,200 odds, a play that could pay out big if things go right for the driver No. 17 RFK Racing Ford Mustang.
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Wyatt Watson has followed motorsports closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretch as a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt is one of Frontstretch's primary IndyCar correspondents, providing exclusive video content on site. He hosts Frontstretch's Through the Gears podcast and occasionally The Pit Straight.You can find Wyatt's written work in columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monsteras well as exclusive IndyCar features. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media team, posting unique and engaging content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on X @WyattWRacing