NASCAR Brickyard 400 Predictions, Odds & Race Preview — Indianapolis Motor Speedway

One of the unofficial crown jewels of the NASCAR Cup Series, the Brickyard 400, is set for Sunday afternoon.

With this being only the second race on the famed 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Next Gen car, the betting board is a bit more wide-open for July 27.

Here are our free betting picks for the Brickyard 400, which will also bring down the curtain on the inaugural In-Season Challenge.

Odds to win 2025 Brickyard 400

Driver
Denny Hamlin	+450
Kyle Larson	+550
William Byron	+800
Ryan Blaney	+850
Chase Elliott	+850
Chase Briscoe	+1100
Tyler Reddick	+1100
Christopher Bell	+1200
Chris Buescher	+1800
Joey Logano	+2000
Ty Gibbs	+2500
Brad Keselowski	+2500
Ross Chastain	+2800
Kyle Busch	+2800
Josh Berry	+3500
Carson Hocevar	+3500
Bubba Wallace	+4000
Alex Bowman	+4000
Austin Cindric	+4000
Daniel Suarez	+8000

Odds as of 7-26.

Brickyard 400 field

We'll see 39 drivers take to the track for the 2025 Brickyard 400. Katherine Legge (No. 78) will become the 21st driver to compete in both the Brickyard 400 and the Indianapolis 500. Jesse Love (No. 62) and Josh Bilicki (No. 66) round out the three open entrants joining the 36 chartered drivers.

Three Hendrick Motorsports pilots (Kyle Larson, William Byron, and Chase Elliott) can be found in the Top 5 in the pre-qualifying wagering, but they're all trailing Denny Hamlin, who took the checkered flag at Dover last Sunday. Ryan Blaney rounds out the single-digit options.

Further down the board are Ty Gibbs and Ty Dillon, but they are the two drivers fighting for the $1 million purse that comes with winning the inaugural In-Season Challenge. 

Brickyard 400 expert picks and predictions

Odds listed below courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook as of 7-26.

Brickyard 400 pre-qualifying favorites

Denny Hamlin (+450)
Coming off a second-place finish the last two years at Pocono (the track most similar to Indy), Hamlin also has seven wins on the 2.5-mile Tricky Triangle. That could lead to Hamlin’s first Brickyard 400 win in his 17th try on Sunday.

Hamlin enters off a Dover victory last Sunday and has five Top-5 finishes at Indy in his last eight tries. He crashed late in the 2020 Brickyard 400 after leading 19 laps. He started second last year and led 21 laps but crashed late while going off strategy. 

Kyle Larson (+550)
Kyle Larson has four Top-10 finishes in seven Brickyard 400 tries, including last year’s victory. 

Ryan Blaney (+850)
Ryan Blaney won at a similar track in Pocono last year and finished third that year in the Brickyard 400. This year, Blaney finished third at Pocono in June.

Can he win the Brickyard 400? The reason to be somewhat leery is the fact that Blaney was 0-for-6 on Indy Top-5 finishes prior to last July.

Brickyard 400 sleepers

Chase Briscoe (+1100)
He started sixth and won Pocono in June, but finished 24th in his lone Brickyard 400 start last year for Stewart-Haas Racing. Still, Chase Briscoe has flashed speed lately in his first season at Joe Gibbs Racing with six Top-7 finishes in the last 10 races. 

Tyler Reddick (+1100)
Tyler Reddick started on pole, led a race-high 40 of 167 laps, and finished second last year. He was eighth in his other Brickyard 400 start in 2020. At a like track in Pocono, Reddick was 11th, ninth, second, second, and sixth in his last five starts.

Joey Logano (+2000)
An underrated driver at Indy with eight Top-10 finishes in 13 tries, including a runner-up finish in 2019. A crash left him 34th last year.

Brad Keselowski (+2500)
A past Brickyard 400 winner in 2018 comes to this race with three Top-4 finishes in his last five tries. He was leading late last year before having to pit in overtime while running out of fuel. He finished ninth at Pocono in June. 

Brickyard 400 fades

William Byron (+800)
William Byron won the 2017 Xfinity Series race, but in four Cup Series starts on the iconic 2.5-mile oval, Byron has qualified 22nd, 29th, 18th, and fourth, respectively, and finished 19th, fourth, 27th, and 38th. His Daytona 500 victory is his lone win this year and he’s finished 28th, ninth, 27th, 37th, 40th, eighth, and 32nd, respectively, the last seven weeks. 

Chase Elliott (+850)
Chase Elliott is on a roll with five Top-6 finishes in the last seven weeks. However, he has not had a Top-5 finish in seven Brickyard 400 starts. He finished 10th last year. 

Kyle Busch (+2800)
Kyle Busch is great at Pocono and is the only multi-time Brickyard 400 winner in the field. He had a stretch of four Top-2 finishes in a six-race span between 2012-2016. However, Busch has finished 34th, eighth, 37th, sixth, and 25th, respectively, since.

Brickyard 400 prop pick: Wallace and Bell Top 5

Wallace finished third at Indy in 2019, ninth in 2020, and fifth last year after leading 26 laps. He's orth a flier this weekend for this prop. He’s also strong at Pocono, as Wallace finished 11th last year, eighth the previous year, and fifth the year prior to that.

Christopher Bell was 12th at the Brickyard 400 as a rookie in 2020 and fourth last year. 

Pick: Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell Top-5 finish (+540 at DraftKings)

Indianapolis Motor Speedway track analysis

This will feature a similar package to Pocono Raceway, but Indianapolis will incorporate some effects of the drafting package that we see at the superspeedways. 

That's why this race will be a hybrid Pocono vs. Daytona. Not necessarily a pack race like Daytona, but drafting will be a primary factor and how much a driver can manipulate the air. 

The best opportunities for passing are at the end of the two long straightaways, so I expect this weekend to mimic Pocono, as it always does. 

Short pitting sometimes gains you track position later, but depending on cautions and tire life, it could bite you, too. Some drivers will elect to pit before the end of stages and give up stage points to restart up front at the next stage. This is definitely a track position circuit. 

Brickyard 400 trends

• Larson ended Ford’s string of three straight wins on the 2.5-mile IMS oval. However, those are the only Ford wins at Indianapolis since 2000.  
• Trends for stages aren’t worthwhile because last year’s race was the first on the oval since 2020.

Brickyard 400 info

Previous Brickyard 400 winners

The NASCAR Cup Series raced on the Indy road course rather than the 2.5-mile oval from 2021-23.

How to make Brickyard 400 picks

NASCAR betting is a nuanced process that can take any number of factors into account, and spans several different types of bets. Fortunately, our How to Bet NASCAR guide walks you through the basics, including how to read odds, different markets that are available, and what to consider when making your bets.

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