Martinsville Speedway is scheduled to host the first of its two races on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule this Sunday afternoon, and with its second being the cutoff race before the Championship 4 in late October, Sunday's Cook Out 400 is one that drivers and teams with championship aspirations will be striving to get right.
Unlike the autumn race, this race is scheduled to be a 400-lap race around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) Ridgeway, Virginia oval known as "The Paperclip", rather than 500-lap event.
Who are the favorites to claim the famous grandfather clock on Sunday afternoon? Here are the top five.
All odds provided by FanDuel Sportsbook and are always subject to change.
Top 5 drivers most likely to win at Martinsville
1. Ryan Blaney, Team Penske (+450)
Martinsville is the one track that Ryan Blaney desperately needed to see on the calendar after his first career run of three straight DNFs. He has won two of the three most recent races at the track, both to lock himself into the Championship 4, and his average finish of 8.3 there is nearly two full positions better than that of the next best driver.
2. Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports (+500)
Kyle Larson has plenty of tracks at which he is much stronger than he is at Martinsville, but he did win there in 2023. And of course, oddsmakers are basically obligated to include him in the top five everywhere at this point; they're not in it to lose money.
T-3. Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing (+750)
Denny Hamlin is the active driver with the most Martinsville victories, though this weekend marks the 10-year anniversary of his fifth and most recent win at the track. He has four stage wins in the five most recent races there and always finds his way to the front.
T-3. Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports (+750)
Martinsville, where Chase Elliott placed inside the top three in both races last year, is the perfect venue for the 2020 champion to get right as he nears a full calendar year without a win for the second time in the last three seasons. He won the playoff race in 2020 to get himself into the Championship 4, and he probably would have won the playoff race in 2017 to do the same had Hamlin not infamously wrecked him.
5. William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports (+800)
There could be good value with William Byron only listed with the fifth shortest odds, as he has won two of the three most recent spring races at Martinsville and notably led last year's 1-2-3 Hendrick Motorsports sweep. Him being listed as the third of four Hendrick drivers is somewhat surprising.
Full odds can be found here.
The Cook Out 400 is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 from Martinsville Speedway starting at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, March 30. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!