When it comes to betting motor sports events this the week, the winner for the bettors is NASCAR by far with its Weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. That brings us Truck Series: Fr8 208, Xfinity Series: Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 and Cup Series: Ambetter Health 400 to finish the weekend.
Betting Motor Sports with XBet: Top Events for the Week
What Racing Events are Happening?
NASCAR – Weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Craftsman Truck Series: Fr8 208 – Saturday, 1:30 pm ET
Xfinity Series: Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 – Saturday, 5:00 pm ET
Cup Series: Ambetter Health 400 – Sunday, 3:00 pm ET
Controversy After NASCAR’s Daytona 500
The 2025 motor sports season has only just begun, and there’s already controversy after NASCAR’s Daytona 500, the beginning of American stock car racing’s regular season. At thee end of the second Duel Qualifier, Erik Jones beat Austin Cindric in a photo finish. However, NASCAR had called a caution flag because of a crash approaching the finish line on the last lap, and the order was frozen just about 100 yards before the finish line.
That freeze led to Cindric being declared the winner. In the main race, though, a last-lap crash on the backstretch that claimed leader Denny Hamlin proceeded without caution, and those who made it around the crash were able to cross the finish line without any freezes or other adjustments, and William Byron won his second straight Daytona 500. Social media excoriated NASCAR leadership for handling the last-lap crashes differently.
Then, after the race, Chase Briscoe’s first weekend with Joe Gibbs Racing was tarnished when NASCAR found him guilty of a spoiler base modification. He’s been docked 100 points, and crew chief James Small is suspended for four races. This isn’t what Briscoe had in mind after winning the pole and then coming in fourth. As of this writing, his point total is -67, and he’s 89 points back of the playoff cutoff. Even if he does get out of this hole and into the playoffs, he will lose 10 playoff points too.
The team is going to appeal the penalty, blaming the situation on the parts rather than the crew.
^Weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway
This weekend, NASCAR is the motor sport with an event on tap, so let’s look at the three stock car races, all set for Atlanta Motor Speedway, along with sports betting suggestions for you to consider.
Atlanta Motor Speedway has gone through a new configuration, and the intermediate oval is now extremely fast. The layout will be quite similar to Daytona, and we will see high speeds as well as cars racing side by side. In addition to the reconfiguration, the pavement is still fairly new with the last repave happening during the 2021 off-season.
Before that, Atlanta had not been repaved since 1997. At that time, the 24-degree corner banking grew to 28 degrees, while the straights remained at five-degree banking. The groove shrank from 55 to 40 feet, which means that while speed increased, maneuvering room decreased.
Now Atlanta is a unique intermediate oval. Over the last three seasons, Atlanta racing has looked a lot more like what we see at such superspeedway ovals as Talladega and Daytona. Zipping through the field, drafting and aerodynamics are now part of the experience – but this oval is just 1 ½ miles long.
Among all of the types of tracks that we see on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, the intermediate oval is the most common. Because of the new configuration in Atlanta and the changes that have taken place since the last repaving, this year’s race will almost certainly be a significant outlier.
Over the last six races here (the last three seasons), the top six drivers in terms of average finish are Ryan Blaney (7.2), Daniel Suarez (7.3), Chase Elliott (8.6), AJ Allmendinger (9.5) Austin Cindric (12.0), and Ross Chastain (12.0). Ironically, the only two drivers among those six to win it are Elliott and Suarez with one victory apiece. The other four victories have gone to Joey Logano (two wins and a 13.7 average finish) and William Byron (two wins and a 15.0 average finish).
How Can We Bet on These Events?
You can find odds for the drivers in all three races, although the Cup Series event will be available on the most sportsbooks. That’s the top circuit; the Xfinity Series is the second-tier race, above the Craftsman Truck Series race.
You will see some Cup Series drivers dropping down to run in one or both of the lower races as well, sometimes. They do this to gain familiarity with the track configuration and at other times to build up career wins at different venues.
The most common pick involves the outright winner, but some books also allow you to choose drivers to finish in the top 3, top 5 and even top 10. You can also place bets on qualification results – such as which driver wins the pole position to start the race.
Some books also offer props on head-to-head contests. In that case, you would pick one driver to finish ahead of a competitor – as long as your pick beats the other driver, you would win on the wager, no matter where they finish in the field.
^What Are the Winning Picks for the Cup Series Race?
William Byron
William Byron won last week and has won two of the last six at Atlanta under this current configuration. Over those six races, he has led 173 laps. The track acts a lot more like a superspeedway, which makes chaos more likely as the track has hazards. Byron found himself victimized by accidents in two of his six Atlanta starts. However, he has cracked the top ten in three of the six races (including his two wins), and that rate of success speaks for itself.
Ryan Blaney
Ryan Blaney has been one of the top drivers on superspeedways the last few years, so he’s definitely a smart pick this weekend. Since the reconfiguration of the track, he has three top-five and five top-ten finishes in six races, with 106 laps led. His average start over these last six races is 3.5, showing that he can also dominate qualifying. It’s a lot easier to push for the win, and certainly to grab a top-ten slot, when you’re starting so close to the front of the field. In 2024, he has a second- and a third-place finish here, so it’s only a matter of time before he finds the winner’s circle.
Joey Logano
Joey Logano won the fall 2024 race at Atlanta. He only led nine laps in that race after qualifying into seventh place. That came after his first career win at this track in 2023. Logano is one of the better superspeedway racing, and he also has wins at Daytona and Talladega. He led a lot of laps in the Daytona 500, but he crashed and ended up with a DNF. I expect him to be motivated to come out and bounce back and be right there at the front with the leaders when things come to an end, even if he’s not the final winner.
Christopher Bell
Christopher Bell has two top-five finishes in his last three races in Atlanta. However, he’s also had some problems with the track design in his other starts. Between 2022 and today, though, he has improved significantly at superspeedway technique. In his fall 2024 race here, he only qualified 26th place, but he zipped through the field and ended up finishing fourth. That kind of momentum should serve him well this weekend.
Chase Elliott
Chase Elliott has enjoyed his home state track since the redesign of the track. In the first 2024 race last year, he qualified on the pole and won the race as well, and in the spring 2022 race he took sixth. Since the track was reconfigured, he has led 125 laps combined. In the fall 2024 race, he finished eighth. That 8.6 average finish shows consistency on a track that has often lacked steady outcomes. He’s definitely a smart pick to finish in the top ten and should be on your radar for outright victory and top 3 picks as well.
Daniel Suarez
Daniel Suarez has done as well as anyone else since the makeover in Atlanta. In his last three stars here, he has a victory and two runner-up finishes. That gives him a win, four top-five and five top-ten finishes in the six races here since the redesign, or an average finish of 7.3. He’s become a fixture at the front over the last few seasons, and we should see more of that on Sunday.
Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch used to dominate this track, finishing in the top 46% of the time and picking up two wins before the reconfiguration. After the changes, the narrow racing grooves and the higher banking confounded Busch a bit. However, in 2023, it looked like he had figured things out, finishing 10th and fifth in the two races. He’s always been comfortable with momentum runs and drafting, and in 2024, he finished third and seventh here in a season that was dreadful for the most part. The racing here should improve as the pavement keeps on aging, and Busch should be able to see top results.
Austin Cindric
Austin Cindric has excelled on superspeedways and already has a Daytona 500 trophy on his shelf. He’s learned how to take advantage of pack and drafting racing, and Atlanta has become a track that rewards those skills. Since the track was reconfigured, he has a pair of top-five and three top-ten finishes, and he’s led 146 laps combined in those events. This past weekend, he qualified on the outside pole and led the race for 59 laps before dropping back to eighth. That experience (including getting passed as the race wound down) should motivate him to show what he can do this week.
^Looking for a Dark Horse or a Sleeper?
Ross Chastain crashed last week and looks to bounce back from that iffy luck. Chastain has a reputation for pushing hard, particularly along the walls, and he ends up making contact with other drivers – and crashing as a result. In 2022, the first year of the track changes, he finished second in both events. He came in seventh place in the spring race here in 2024, and in the fall race he led 13 laps and hung right there with the leaders before falling back to 13th. He has led 92 total laps in his post-renovation Atlanta races.
Another sleeper is Chase Briscoe, who might be the most motivated driver in the circuit after losing all of those points last week. His finishes in Atlanta haven’t been that great since the change in layout, but he qualified on the pole in 2022 and has an average start of 7.5 over that time period. His qualification went well in both races in Atlanta last year, but accidents along the way took away his chances at victory. This time around, he’ll be looking to finish near the front – if he doesn’t win it outright.
Ty Reddick is also a sleeper this week because superspeedways really aren’t his thing. Even so, he did come in second at Daytona this past weekend, so he could be turning over a new leaf. In his last four starts here, he has two top-ten finishes, including a sixth-place finish last fall after starting in the middle of the pack on the grid. With his speed and improvements in technique, Reddick might be learning that superspeedways aren’t so bad after all.
Alex Bowman surprised the betting community with his sixth-place finish at the Daytona 500, so he’s an interesting pick this week as well. He’s only finished in the top ten twice in the six races here since the makeover, but his last finish came here in the fall of 2024, when he qualified 11th and moved up to finish in fifth. His team has decent superspeedway skills, but figuring out the Atlanta configuration has taken time. He’s another interesting top-ten pick, if not even higher.
^Daniel Suarez shocked the world last year in Atlanta. 🌎
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) February 20, 2025
Here's how the closest three-wide finish in NASCAR Cup Series history, 0.007 seconds between first and third, sounded across the globe. pic.twitter.com/IVywBZDdiT
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