Ryan Blaney is still one of the co-favorites to win the NASCAR Cup Series title.
Blaney and Denny Hamlin are now the BetMGM betting favorites at +450 following the first round of the Cup Series playoffs. Blaney and Kyle Larson opened as the co-favorites, but Larson’s odds have slipped a little after the first round.
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Blaney is looking for his second Cup Series title after winning in 2023, and Hamlin is infamously still chasing his first as the winningest driver in Cup Series history without a title.
Blaney kept his co-favorite status despite Joe Gibbs Racing’s dominance in the first round. Each of JGR’s three playoff drivers won the first three races of the postseason. Chase Briscoe won at Darlington, Hamlin won at Gateway and Christopher Bell won at Bristol.
Bell is the favorite to win Sunday’s race at New Hampshire ahead of Hamlin and Briscoe. Bell is +325 to get the win, while Hamlin is at +425 and Briscoe is at +525.
Hamlin has the best average finish of any driver at New Hampshire. Over 31 starts, he has three wins and 19 top-10 finishes with an average finish of 9.9. Bell has two wins and three top-five finishes in five starts. He has finished first, first, second, 28th and 29th in his five starts, and is the defending champion at New Hampshire.
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Larson’s odds have dropped from +425 at the start of the playoffs to +475 after the first round. Hendrick Motorsports hasn’t been as fast as JGR so far, but that could change at Kansas and the Charlotte Roval over the second round.
Bell is the No. 4 favorite to win the title at +525 and may be the best value for the championship at the moment.
While Blaney is one of the favorites to win the title, his two Team Penske teammates are among the long shots. 2024 Cup Series champion Joey Logano is at +1600 to win the title and Austin Cindric is +3000. Cindric and Bubba Wallace have the longest odds of anyone to win the championship, even as Wallace has scored six of his 12 top-10 finishes this season over the past nine races.
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Shane van Gisbergen, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon and Josh Berry were the four drivers eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Van Gisbergen entered the playoffs tied for the Cup Series lead in wins with four but hasn’t posted a top-10 finish at a track other than a road course so far this season.
