Shriners Children’s 500 NASCAR Betting Odds and Predictions

After a chaotic start in terms of tracks to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, a semblance of normalcy is set to settle in this week. Sunday afternoon’s Shriners Children’s 500 will be a critical one given that Phoenix Raceway will again host the championship race at the end of the year. As such, we can expect many teams to try different setups and strategies with their cars in the hopes of learning a thing or two for the fall.

As far as the NASCAR betting odds and predictions to win outright, defending winner Christopher Bell tops the board. In addition to having the shot to repeat, Bell carries a two-race winning streak into the weekend.

Below, we break down the NASCAR betting odds to win the Shriners Children’s 500, including our top picks and predictions from favorites to long shots with a chance.

Shriners Children’s 500 NASCAR Race Info

Shriners Children’s 500
Date: Sunday, March 9, 2025
Start Time: 3:30 p.m. EST
Coverage: FS1
Distance: 312 miles (312 laps)
Stages: Three (Laps 1-60; 61-185; 186-312)
Pole Sitter: TBD
Defending Champion: Christopher Bell

Shriners Children’s 500 NASCAR Betting Odds to Win

The perception around Phoenix Raceway is that Team Penske is the outfit to beat. However, this is only true to an extent. Each of the last three NASCAR Cup Series champions has come from the Penske camp. While it is true that the Penske Fords have had a lock on the championship race in the fall, the spring Phoenix race has been much more unpredictable.

Since the advent of the Next Gen Car in 2022, three different race teams and manufacturers have won the Shriners Children’s 500. Chase Briscoe took a Stewart-Haas Ford to victory lane in this race three years ago. In 2023, William Byron guided his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to victory before Christopher Bell won this race in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota last season.

Speaking of Bell, he is the top choice amongst the Shriners Children’s 500 NASCAR betting odds to win this weekend. In addition to the chance to defend last year’s win, Bell will also be vying to extend his current race-winning streak to three. If the No. 20 team can somehow go back-to-back-to-back on a superspeedway, road course and short track, it would make for quite the statement in the first month of the season.

As expected, the sport’s top drivers and race teams are tight on Bell’s heels in the Shriners Children’s 500 betting odds. The table below lists the latest odds for the top 32 drivers to win Sunday’s race at Phoenix.

Shriners Children’s 500 outright betting odds are taken from Fanatics Sportsbook.

NASCAR Betting Picks and Predictions: Who Will Win the Shriners Children’s 500?

Favorite: Ryan Blaney (+600 at Fanatics)

For those fixing to back one of the NASCAR betting favorites to win the Shriners Children’s 500, Ryan Blaney has to be the preferred choice. No, Team Penske hasn’t been nearly as dominant at Phoenix Raceway in the spring compared to the fall. However, Blaney has been one of the best and most consistent drivers in recent years regardless of when NASCAR runs at the 1-mile track.

In total, the NASCAR Cup Series has run six events at Phoenix Raceway in the Next Gen Car. Blaney is a perfect six-for-six in those races when it comes to posting top-5 finishes. Oddly enough, he has not won any of those starts outright including the 2023 championship race in which he captured the title with a second-place showing. That result represents one of four runner-up finishes that Blaney has had in the six-race sample size with this car. Thus, to say he’s overdue to park the No. 12 Ford Mustang in victory lane would be an understatement!

In addition to his average finish of 2.8, Blaney tops all NASCAR Cup Series drivers with a 115.4 average driver rating in the last six races at Phoenix. With numbers like that, it’s easy to rationalize a bet on him to win at +600 odds.

Value Pick: Chase Briscoe (+1300)

Regardless of what transpires on the track this Sunday, this week can already be viewed as a major win for Chase Briscoe. The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team was levied a major penalty by NASCAR following the Daytona 500 for an alleged spoiler modification. However, on Wednesday, the appeals panel officially ruled to overturn Briscoe’s Daytona penalty. As a result, he gained back the 100 standings points and 10 playoff points that he was initially docked. Oh, and Joe Gibbs got out of paying the accompanying $100,000 fine as well.

As far as our Shriners Children’s 500 NASCAR betting picks to win are concerned, we’re banking on the No. 19 team to carry this feel-good momentum with them to Phoenix, a track that Briscoe has notably run well at in the past. Sure, this will be his first foray with JGR, but both driver and race team have a pedigree of success here. Briscoe won the first-ever race in the Next Gen Car at Phoenix back in the spring of 2022 and has recorded three additional top-10 finishes in the five races since. As for JGR, the organization has won three of the last six editions of the spring Phoenix race. Thus, the 13-1 price is nothing to sneeze at here.

Long Shot Hopeful: Alex Bowman (+5500)

Statistically speaking, it’s easy to see why Alex Bowman is priced as a NASCAR betting long shot to win the Shriners Children’s 500 this weekend. Outside of capturing his first career Cup Series pole at Phoenix several years ago, Bowman has had very little success in the desert. In the six races with the Next Gen Car at Phoenix, he has only managed one top-10 finish and an average finishing mark of 18.0. Not great would be an understatement given the quality of the equipment he drives.

Speaking of equipment, that is the precise reason why we are pegging Bowman as our long shot hopeful to win outright on Sunday. The No. 48 is the clear outlier in the Hendrick Motorsports garage as far as the NASCAR betting odds are concerned. All three of his teammates are priced at 10-1 or higher to win. Even with his own lack of success, a 55-1 price on an HMS car is impossible to ignore.

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