RaceSheetsDFS

Finally, we review the 2024 Cup Series data as we did with the Xfinity and Trucks Series races.

Here’s the complete 2024 compilation of where every starting position finished, how many laps they led, where every driver finished (and their subsequent laps led), loop data, DFS information for every race, as well as practice info for every race, that had practice, as well as how that practice speed translated into actual speed in the race:

➡️2024 Cup Loop Data/ Optimal Lineups
➡️2024 Cup Practice/ Speed Data

For those wanting to compare 2024 to years past in the Cup Series:

➡️2023 Cup Loop Data/ Optimal Lineups
➡️2023 Cup Practice/ Speed Data
➡️2022 Cup Loop Data/ Optimal Lineups
➡️2022 Cup Practice/ Speed Data

✖️ Follow RaceSheetsDFS on Twitter/ X
💵 Get up to a $100 deposit match at PrizePicks when you sign up, SHEETS at 🛒
🏎️ Claim your 125% sign-up bonus at BetUS, the official sportsbook of the RaceSheets
📈 Join The Solver today and build up to 300 lineups at a time, upload the RaceSheetsDFS projections for every race, and get 4for4’s NFL DFS projections preloaded for every slate

Last week, we tackled early 2025 Daytona 500 odds, highlighting Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (+2500) and Noah Gragson (+4000) as great values to jump on before the public starts thinking about Daytona. For those interested, those odds are still static at BetUS.

Now… let us look for some values for the 2025 Cup Series champion.

First, I offer a caveat: betting season-long odds isn’t my cup of tea. Having money locked up from now through mid-November of 2025 is the last thing I want to do, but when value presents itself - who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth?

I’d love to wax poetic about how being a well-rounded driver is the key to success, but the fact is that a driver just needs to excel at one of the following racing disciplines: road courses, drafting ovals, high-banked ovals, intermediates. They have to be good enough to be viable to win (punch their playoff ticket first and foremost), pad regular and postseason points at one of those four “disciplines,” and then be able to compete for the title at Phoenix in the championship race. For example, drivers like Kyle Larson, William Byron, and Denny Hamlin are generally going to be the favorites at any intermediate track (Kansas, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Texas) and have shown that they can compete at tracks like Phoenix, Martinsville, Richmond, and New Hampshire.

With this as our gauge, my best 2025 Cup Series championship value is Chris Buescher, currently at 33/1. Buescher has already demonstrated for years that he’s one of the best road racers in the Gen Seven car, with 13 top-10 results in 17 races and a series-best average finish of 8.8 (in fact, he’s the only driver with an average finish in the single digits). With six road races on the 2025 schedule, that’s six opportunities (including in the playoffs at the Charlotte Roval) to secure a victory and playoff stage points.

If you’re balking at the above paragraph, yeah - that’s the case you would make for AJ Allmendinger (+25000) or Shane Van Gisbergen (+8000) at much longer odds. However, Buescher is more than a one-trick pony like Dinger or SVG. Road courses should be the only venues we expect to see Allmendinger and Van Gisbergen atop the outright betting markets while they fall back into the field at every other venue. Buescher will be among the favorites at COTA in the Spring but will be incredibly live at intermediates and high-banked ovals as well. In all, Buescher finished 2024 with 108 stage points, the second most among non-playoff drivers, and more than three playoff drivers as well.

Regardless, what matters more is how viable he can or will be at Phoenix. For example, Tyler Reddick can accumulate large sums of points at road courses and intermediates. Still, until he improves his effort at short/ flat venues - he’ll never be a real championship threat. On the other hand, Buescher has been consistent at Phoenix, with finishes of 5-2-9 in his last three starts, not to mention performing well at the sister tracks of New Hampshire and Richmond.

✖️ Follow RaceSheetsDFS on Twitter/ X
💵 Get up to a $100 deposit match at PrizePicks when you sign up, SHEETS at 🛒
🏎️ Claim your 125% sign-up bonus at BetUS, the official sportsbook of the RaceSheets
📈 Join The Solver today and build up to 300 lineups at a time, upload the RaceSheetsDFS projections for every race, and get 4for4’s NFL DFS projections preloaded for every slate