Back-To-Back Race Winner Christopher Bell Earns Top NASCAR Cup Series Championship Odds 

NASCAR Cup Series Christopher Bell may have criticized his driving down the stretch of last Sunday’s event at the reconfigured Circuit of The Americas, but the race winner praised the “clean,” competitive driving he engaged with Kyle Busch, William Byron, and Tyler Reddick.  

Chaotic, crash-filled endings often highlight the final laps of stock-car races. Not at COTA, despite the intense battles. Following the last restart on Lap 83, Busch, who led a race-high 42 laps, couldn’t maintain track position against Bell’s No. 20 Toyota riding on fresher tires.  

Bell spent seven laps battling Busch and finally cleared him off Turn 20. Busch, whose Cup winless skid reached 60 outings, eventually faded to P5.    

Bell, meanwhile, cruised to his second consecutive win. The back-to-back efforts came at distinctly different venues, Atlanta’s drafting track and Austin’s road course.  

“I’m so proud of the way everybody raced each other at the end of that race,” Bell told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Tuesday. “I would love to change the narrative of the Cup Series, of running into people and moving them out of the way. I would love it if this is a turning point for us, where we’re able to race respectfully and stay off of each other and make it less of a contact sport.”  

Bell’s consecutive trips to Victory Lane helped propel FanDuel Sportsbook to list the Joe Gibbs Racing pilot (+550) with the top sports-betting odds to capture the drivers’ championship. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson (+600) and William Byron (+700) rounded out the sportsbook’s top three best bets.   

Byron, the series points leader, earned a win and two top-five finishes in the circuit’s opening three events. He registered runner-up finishes in the Cup and Xfinity Series races at COTA last weekend.  

To maintain the top odds, Bell likely will have to execute better. He may have claimed his 11th career win, but, although the closing battles for the lead were clean, Bell described his closing performance as the “five or six sloppiest laps I’ve run,” he told Fox Sports. “I’m ready to keep adding to it.”

Keep Austin weird ❌
Keep COTA wild ✅ pic.twitter.com/kXfF149hMT

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 4, 2025

2025 NASCAR Cup Series Driver Odds  

Here is an early look at the drivers’ odds for winning the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series championship, according to FanDuel Sportsbook:

*-Odds current at time of publication