2025 Cook Out 400 Predictions at Martinsville for Today: Best NASCAR Prop Bets, Expert Picks to Win & Odds

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Martinsville Speedway this weekend for the Cook Out 400. Martinsville is another flat short track, making it the second such venue we’ve seen this year after Phoenix, which we’ll lean on for our analysis.

Ryan Blaney is the betting favorite to win Sunday's race at 3 p.m. ET (FS1), but our Cook Out 400 predictions favor another driver who already has multiple victories under his belt.

📊 2025 Cook Out 400 odds & favorites at Martinsville

Here are the latest Cook Out 400 odds and favorites in the hours prior to the ace at Martinsville through BetMGM.

🥇 Cook Out 400 betting favorites 🥇

• Denny Hamlin, +400 ($10 to win $40)
• Ryan Blaney, +500 ($10 to win $50)
• Kyle Larson, +700 ($10 to win $70)
• Chase Elliott, +700 ($10 to win $70)
• William Byron, +1000 ($10 to win $100)
• Joey Logano, +1000 ($10 to win $100)
• Christopher Bell, +1000 ($10 to win $100)
• Chase Briscoe, +1800 ($10 to win $180)
• Alex Bowman, +2000 ($10 to win $200)
• Bubba Wallace, +2000 ($10 to win $200)

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🏁 Cook Out 400 predictions, expert picks & best bets at Martinsville

Editor's note: these predictions were made before qualifying; odds may have changed.

Martinsville, like Phoenix, is a flat short track. Unlike bigger tracks, the average green-flag speed here tops out at around 90 mph. This makes car control far more important than top-end speed, which can help drivers in less competitive equipment.

Short flat tracks have been a playground for Ford, especially Team Penske. Although Christopher Bell won at Phoenix, Ford led the most laps with 121. Still, Joey Logano (81), Ryan Preece (34), and Austin Cindric (6) all finished outside the top 10 despite their speed.

The most recent Martinsville race saw Brad Keselowski lead an impressive 170 of 500 laps before bringing his RFK Ford home in ninth. Yet we're looking in a different direction with our Cook Out 400 predictions at Martinsville.

🏆 Pick to win Cook Out 400: Christopher Bell (+1200 via BetMGM) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I’m sorry, but any book hanging +1200 odds for Christopher Bell while listing charging +360 for Ryan Blaney or +700 for Chase Elliott is simply doing it wrong. Bell has won three times already this season, including once on a flat short track, and victory at Phoenix was no fluke - he led 105 of 312 laps and posted the best driver rating.

Bell struggled at Martinsville last year, failing to lead a lap or finish inside the top 20 in two attempts. But let’s not forget the dominant win he put together here in 2022, leading 150 laps down the stretch and trailing only teammate Denny Hamlin in driver rating.

The best reason to target Bell, aside from his surprisingly long price, is his dominance at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Both that track and this one are flat and short - but, more importantly, they’re both shaped like paperclips with tight corners and long straightaways.

Bell is the second-winningest driver at NHMS in the Xfinity Series all-time with four wins in four starts. He already has won at NHMS twice in the Cup Series through five starts, so I suspect he is due for some positive regression at Martinsville.

💎 Best value bet to win Cook Out 400: Ryan Preece (+3500 via BetMGM) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I like the value on Bell at +1200, but I love Ryan Preece at +3500. After spending the last few seasons in the underfunded Stewart-Haas Racing, he's now in race-winning equipment at RFK Racing. He enters Sunday’s race on a streak of back-to-back top-10 results and led 34 laps at Phoenix, so the momentum is in his favor.

Preece’s background stands out ahead of this race. He grew up racing modifieds on the flat short tracks of New England like NHMS that mirror Martinsville’s configuration. In his two seasons at SHR, Preece posted one top 10 and three top 15s here. He even won the pole and led 135 laps here in the spring of 2023, more than any other driver in that event.

With how good Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher looked here last fall, I can’t help but feel like this is a perfect storm for the Connecticut native to get his first win. Josh Berry, another former SHR driver, found Victory Lane for the first time at Las Vegas. Look for Preece to join him on the list of Cup Series winners this Sunday.

🎯 Best long shot to win Cook Out 400: John Hunter Nemechek (+50000 via Hard Rock) ⭐⭐

If you’re scrolling below +5000 on the oddsboard, you probably aren’t going to find a winner, especially here at Martinsville. But if you want to take a shot on a fun long-shot option, John Hunter Nemechek might just be your guy.

He didn’t do much at Martinsville last year, but he finished eighth at New Hampshire. More importantly, Nemechek has found victory here in the lower series. He dominated here in the spring of 2023, leading 198 of 250 laps, and he scored a Truck Series win here in 2018 while driving for his underfunded family team, NEMCO Motorsports.

Don’t put the house on Nemechek to score a wild underdog win, but at least consider getting a little bit of action down while the price is so long with a winning $10 bet returning a $5,000 profit at Hard Rock Bet.

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💰 Best Cook Out 400 prop bets & picks at Martinsville

I truly believe Preece will secure victory at Martinsville, but even if he doesn’t win, I want some action on him to score a top-10 result. But the method through which we reached that bet - backing the Fords from RFK Racing - points to value in another market.

🔥 Best prop bet for Cook Out 400: Ryan Preece top-10 finish (+130 via Hard Rock) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Backing Preece to score a top-10 result will cost you between +100 and +110 at just about every one of our best sports betting sites except Hard Rock Bet, which has posted a forgiving +130 for him to do so. Remember, Preece scored a top-10 here for a worse team last year, and he went 3-for-4 in scoring top-15 results here for that team.

Preece’s laps led at Phoenix were encouraging, and he even ended the race ranked seventh in average green-flag speed. Here in Martinsville, he ranked 15th by that metric in the spring race and sixth in the fall race. Since we’ve seen him win a pole here before, this is a bet you’ll want to lock in before qualifying.

🚀 Best long-shot prop bet for Cook Out 400: Chris Buescer top-5 finish (+650 via Hard Rock) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Let’s get some exposure on one of Preece’s teammates, Chris Buescher, to also run well this weekend. While I personally will have more exposure to him on the top-10 markets (he’s +200 at Hard Rock), this long-shot prop bet still has plenty of value.

Buescher scored a top-five finish at Phoenix just a few weeks ago and secured another at New Hampshire last year. While he has yet to find the same level of success here in Martinsville, he has two teammates whose notes will help him out considerably.

Keselowski has excelled on short flat ovals, especially Martinsville and New Hampshire, while Preece has the background in New England modified racing that lends itself well to this type of venue. That could help Buescher hit his marks at Martinsville this weekend.

📈 Cook Out 400 trends & Martinsville Speedway history

Here are a few Cook Out 400 trends to consider before betting on Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway.

🏎️ Trust the big-name teams. The last time a driver not racing for Team Penske, Joe Gibbs Racing, or Hendrick Motorsports won at Martinsville, Clint Bowyer took the checkered flag for the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing. He is the only driver to do so over the last 20 races here, which dates back to 2015.

🏎️ Long shots are long shots for a reason. The last driver to score his first career NASCAR Cup Series win at Martinsville was Ricky Craven, who did so in 2001. Before him, the last driver to do so was Geoff Bodine in 1984.

🏎️ Starting position isn’t that important. Don’t be afraid to back drivers starting outside the top 10 this weekend: since the NextGen Era began in 2022, all but one winner started worse than 10th. The lone exception, William Byron, won from fifth place in 2022.

💡 How to bet on NASCAR at Martinsville

Since we’re back on a flat short track, it’s worth revisiting some of the NASCAR betting strategy notes that we talked about before Phoenix with some added context for Martinsville. 

• Don’t pay the premium for the favorites. At Phoenix, Christopher Bell won after opening at +450 (18.2%), and now we’ve got Ryan Blaney at +375 (21%). While these drivers will win sometimes, the raw odds of anyone winning a 36-car race are 2.7%, and even if we narrow that down to the 11 drivers for the top three teams, those odds are just 9%.
• If you want a big-name favorite, consider waiting until after qualifying. Unless Blaney, Larson, or Elliott secure a starting spot in the first two rows, it’s unlikely that the books will keep charging such a high price for them to win. 
• You rarely see a first-time winner here - unless they’re from New England. The last two first-time NASCAR Cup Series winners at Martinsville, Geoff Bodine and Ricky Craven, cut their teeth on the flat short tracks of New England and Canada.

🏆 Past Martinsville Winners

Here is a look at the last 10 Martinsville winners entering Sunday's race.

📺 How to watch the 2025 Cook Out 400 at Martinsville

📅 Race date: Sunday, March 30, 2025
🕒 Start time: 3 p.m. ET
📍 Track: Martinsville Speedway (Martinsville, Va.)
📺 TV: FS1 | Streaming: FOX Sports App

❓ Cook Out 400 FAQs

Who is favored to win the Cook Out 400?

Ryan Blaney is the favorite to win the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville with odds of +375, which would profit $37.50 on a $10 bet.

What are the odds for Martinsville?

Ryan Blaney (+375), Kyle Larson (+575) and Chase Elliott (+700) have the shortest odds to win the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville on Sunday.

What time is the 2025 Cook Out 400?

The 2025 Cook Out 400 starts at 3 p.m. ET (FS1) on Sunday, March 30, from Martinsville Speedway.

How to watch the 2025 Cook Out 400

You can watch the Cook Out 400 on FS1 or stream it via the FOX Sports App.

Who won the Cook Out 400 last year?

Last year, William Byron won the spring Martinsville race after opening at +1100.

🏁 Best NASCAR betting sites for Cook Out 400 at Martinsville

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