Daytona 500 Betting Odds, Picks, Predictions
Once the dust settles after practice and qualifying David (@DR_Tenn) will be by each week to provide his race-day thoughts and best bets. Be sure to check back in up until the green flag waves for updates and added bets.
Remember it’s always important to shop around to find the best number as they’ll vary and change tremendously from book to book.
We made it! It’s been so awesome seeing and hearing the cars back on the track after a long offseason. While we’re all excited and ready to just hand our favorite sportsbooks all of our money to take our bets, it’s important to remember what we’re dealing with this week. Daytona is a track where literally anyone in the 40-car field could win the race. With that being said, that uncertainty provides us with opportunities we typically don’t get with quality drivers getting long odds. We’re no doubt going to have some fun, but bankroll management with a smaller unit size is important this week. Let’s get to it.
Bet: Aric Almirola +3500
After a strong qualifying effort on Wednesday and a win in last night’s Duel race, I was surprised to wake up and see Aric with these odds. The Ford camp has unloaded at Daytona with a bunch of hotrods and in case you haven’t been paying attention, it’s obvious that Aric finds himself sitting in one. Aric is also no stranger to past success at Daytona with a win here back in the summer of 2014. Aric’s solid superspeedway history paired with t5he speed and handling that he has showed this week makes this 35/1 bet one I’ll have on my Daytona 500 card.
Bet: Best Finish Group C: (Cindric, Chastain, Keselowski, Bowman) – Austin Cindric +255
This group in filled with aggressive drivers that aren’t afraid to mix it up. Albeit on a small sample size, Cindric has already proven himself to be one of the best superspeedway drivers. Cindric won this race last season and went on to earn an 8.5 average finish on this track type, which was good enough for 2nd best overall in the series. Give me Cindric.
Bet: Chase Elliott +100 over Kyle Larson -120
Prior to Thursday’s duel races, Chase was the favorite in this matchup ranging from -120 to -140 across various books. Entering the second duel race with a front row starting spot for Sunday’s Daytona 500 already locked up the expectation by many was that Kyle Larson would take it easy to save his car much like his teammate Alex Bowman did in the first duel. That proved to be wrong. Larson stayed in the thick of things near the front, leading 9 laps and coming home with a sixth place finish. This seemingly has caused an overreaction leading to Larson now being the -120 betting favorite in this head to head matchup.
Looking back to last season at the drafting style tracks, Elliott finished higher than Larson five times in six races. Larson has a 25th place average finish over last four Daytona finishes (37th, 32nd, 20th, 10th) compared to that of Elliott’s 12.5 average (29th, 10th, 8th, 2nd.) I just simply think the wrong driver is now favored. Let’s take Chase at even money.
Bet: Erik Jones to lead a lap +115
Erik Jones led at least three laps in each of the four big superspeedway (Daytona and Talladega) races last season. He led more than 20-laps in three out of those four races giving him an 18.3 average laps led which was second best in the series. Let’s have some fun!
Daytona 500
Track: Daytona International Speedway
Date-Time: Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023. 2:30 p.m. ET
Daytona 500 Odds *via Draftkings Sportsbook as of 2/17/23*
Kyle Larson +1000
Ryan Blaney +1200
Joey Logano +1200
Chase Elliott +1200
Denny Hamlin +1300
William Byron +1400
Kyle Busch+1400
Ross Chastain+1600
Bubba Wallace +1600
Brad Keselowski +1800
Tyler Reddick +2000
Austin Cindric +2000
Alex Bowman +2000
Kevin Harvick +2500
Christopher Bell +2500
Aric Almirola +2500
Ryan Preece +3000
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. +3000
Martin Truex Jr. +3000
Daniel Suarez +3000
Chris Buescher +3000
Chase Briscoe +3000
Austin Dillon +3000
Michael McDowell +3500
Erik Jones +3500
Justin Haley +4000
Jimmie Johnson +4000
Ty Gibbs +5000
Todd Gilliland +5000
Noah Gragson +5000
Harrison Burton +5000
A.J. Allmendinger +5000
Zane Smith +10000
Corey Lajoie +10000
Travis Pastrana +10000
Ty Dillon +15000
Riley Herbst +15000
Cody Ware +50000
B.J. McLeod +50000
Conor Daly +50000
