NASCAR DFS Fantasy Picks 2025 Martinsville Playoffs Cup Race: Best Drivers, Sleepers, and Winning Strategy

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The NASCAR Cup Series circuit heads into the next-to-last race of the 2025 season on Sunday at the Martinsville Speedway. The Xfinity 500 serves as the final race of the Round of 8 of the playoffs to determine what four drivers will compete for the championship at the Phoenix Raceway the following week.

Ahead of 500 laps of action around the 0.5-mile track, there's some things sports bettors will want to know for their daily fantasy sports (DFS) lineup. According to DraftKings Sportsbooks as of Wednesday night EST, Ryan Blaney is the odds-on favorite to win at +400.

This is no surprise as the driver of the #12 has won the last two Martinsville fall races, earning a spot in the Championship 4 in both. The Team Penske drivers heads into this Sunday in a must-win situation, so he's sure to be a contender again to take the checkered flag.

Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin share the second-best odds to win at +500 each. Larson has finished no worse than sixth in the last six Martinsville races, including a win in April 2023. Meanwhile, Hamlin won at Martinsville this past spring and is a six-time winner at the Virginia track. Betting on either of these playoff contenders would be a solid strategy.

The next-best odds include Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott at +650. Bell won at Martinsville in the fall of 2022, securing his spot in the Championship 4 that year. Elliott did the same in the fall of 2020 and will need a repeat perfomance if he wants to compete for the championship. These two drivers are others to watch out for on Sunday.

One sleeper to watch this Sunday is Josh Berry at +3000 to win. While he doesn't have the Martinsville Cup results to back it up, the driver of the #21 comes from a short-track background and has a Martinsville win in the Xfinity Series in 2021. Alex Bowman is another one to watch at +4500 to win. The driver of the #48 won the playoff Martinsville race back in 2021.

What time does the NASCAR Cup race at Martinsville start?

 ImagnNASCAR: Xfinity 500 - Source: Imagn

In the final race of the Round of 8, six drivers will be gunning for the final two spots in next week's Championship 4 race at the Phoenix Raceway. Martinsville Speedway plays host to the Xfinity 500, which is set for 500 laps of NASCAR action around the 0.5-mile track.

The green flag for the race is scheduled to drop at 2 p.m. EST. The race can be watched on NBC or listened to on the Motor Racing Network. Ryan Blaney enters the event as the defending two-time winner.

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About the author

John Breeden

John Breeden is a NASCAR content writer at Sportskeeda with over four years of sports journalism experience. His career began back in 2021, when he started writing for The Breeze - a student-run publication at James Madison University that covered a wide variety of JMU collegiate sports. He graduated from JMU in May 2022 with a degree in media arts and design concentrating in journalism. He currently writes for his local publication, the Daily News-Record, in Harrisonburg, VA, where he covers a variety of sports at the high school and collegiate level.

John has been a lifelong NASCAR fan and has followed the sport closely since 2005. He stays informed on motorsports developments through social media, NASCAR.com, and NASCAR podcasts, which help him craft unique and engaging stories. Interviewing Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon at Martinsville Speedway was a career highlight for John, where he wrote about William Byron taking the famed No. 24 car back to the Championship 4.

Beyond motorsports, John enjoys writing about other sports such as football, baseball, and basketball. He believes that NASCAR could reach the global popularity of Formula 1 by expanding its audience with more international races and enhancing its mainstream appeal, just like F1 has done.

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