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NASCAR will stage its All-Star Race this weekend at the newly refurbished North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina and the two drivers with multiple wins at the event enter with the best odds. Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson each have two All-Star Race wins on their résumés and could join rarified air by adding a third. Only legends Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have won three or more.
Current full-time drivers who meet the following criteria are automatically entered into the All-Star Race:
• Won a race in 2022 or 2023
• Won a past All-Star Race
• Won a Cup Series championship
Larson is the favorite at +600 while Harvick enters the weekend at +800. The last time the Cup Series ran North Wilkesboro was in 1996 — before six Cup Series regulars were even born — meaning no one has any experience driving on the unique uphill/downhill .625-mile oval. That said, Larson makes sense as the favorite as he has won two races on similarly short tracks at Martinsville and Richmond this season.
NASCAR All-Star Race betting information
The favorites
• Kyle Larson +600
• Kevin Harvick +800
• Christopher Bell +900
• William Byron +900
• Joey Logano +900
Bell has finished in the top 10 in more than half of his 17 Cup short track starts including a win in the Martinsville playoff race last season. Despite similar Hendrick machinery to Larson, Byron has struggled on short tracks this year but posted an impressive sixth-place average finish on them from 2021-22. Logano has an impressive 11 top-10s in his last 17 races on tracks shorter than a mile.
Good mid-tier value
• Chase Elliott +1200
• Ryan Blaney +1800
Elliott has finished in the top 10 in each of his last five short track starts and won the All-Star Race in its only running at the half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway in 2020. Blaney is the event’s defending champion and typically runs well in the tight confines of Martinsville and Bristol, which most closely resemble North Wilkesboro.
Don’t bet this driver
• Tyler Reddick +1800
There are far better short-track races with even longer odds than Reddick who has never led a lap on a short track in the Cup Series and has only finished in the top 10 twice.
Looking for a long shot?
• Austin Cindric +6000
Cindric has been more successful on superspeedways since joining the Cup Series at the beginning of last season, but in his final three Xfinity Series campaigns from 2019-2021, he reeled off 16 short-track top 10s, including two wins.
NASCAR All-Star Open betting information
To fill out the 24-car field, the top two finishers in the All-Star Open on Sunday afternoon and the winner of a fan vote will advance to Sunday night’s main event. The Open will be 100 laps with a competition yellow flag about 40 laps in.
The favorites
• Josh Berry +450
• Ty Gibbs +450
• Aric Almirola +500
• Ryan Preece +500