If ever there was a time to fall in love with betting, February is the month to do so.
Last Sunday was the Super Bowl. This Sunday, it’s the 2021 Daytona 500.
The green flag for the 63rd Great American Race drops on Feb. 14, setting the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series in motion.
Daytona 500 top contenders
Things will look a bit different on the Daytona International Speedway this year than in the past.
Events that generally take place over the course of two weeks will run their course in just six days during Daytona Speedweeks.
As for the race itself, fans can expect the same fast-paced action they’ve come to know and love.
Two-time defending Daytona 500 champion Denny Hamlin (+700) is favored in DraftKings’ latest race odds.
Hamlin concluded the 2020 season with seven victories, becoming the only Joe Gibbs Racing driver to win more than once during the year.
Chase Elliott (+900) sits at second on the list, intent on preserving his NASCAR Cup Series title.
Elliott placed second at last year’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 and 17th at the 2020 Daytona 500. In his past five starts at the Daytona 500, though, he doesn’t have a single top-10 finish.
Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano round out the top five, each with +1100 odds of winning.
Aside from Hamlin, the only other top-five driver with a Daytona 500 win is Logano, who claimed the title back in 2015.
How does the rest of the pack fare?
Kevin Harvick spent much of 2020 at the top of the leaderboard, winning nine total races throughout the year.
He took a turn by the end of the year, however. Harvick fell short of the Championship 4 cutoff after failing to place top 10 in any of his last six races.
This year, Harvick holds the sixth-best odds of winning this weekend.
For a strong value pick sitting in the middle of the pack, bettors need look no further than ninth-seeded Kyle Larson.
Larson returns to the track in Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro.
During his four races in 2020, he boasted three top-10 finishes. One of those completions was a 10th-place finish at the 2020 Daytona 500.
In total, Larson boasts three top-10 finishes at Daytona 500 events.
DraftKings’ lines allow bettors to wager on the winner, top-3 and top-10 finishing positions for drivers.
Driver | Winner | Top 3 | Top 10 |
---|---|---|---|
Denny Hamlin | +700 | +225 | -182 |
Chase Elliott | +900 | +300 | -150 |
Ryan Blaney | +1100 | +350 | -125 |
Brad Keselowski | +1100 | +350 | -125 |
Joey Logano | +1100 | +350 | -125 |
Kevin Harvick | +1300 | +400 | -112 |
Kyle Busch | +1400 | +450 | +100 |
William Byron | +1600 | +500 | +110 |
Kyle Larson | +1600 | +500 | +110 |
Aric Almirola | +1800 | +550 | +115 |
Alex Bowman | +1800 | +550 | +115 |
Race matchups, props and boosts
The Daytona 500 certainly won’t feature as many prop bets as last week’s Super Bowl, but bettors still have multiple ways to get in on the action.
DraftKings is currently running a promo where odds for Denny Hamlin to log a top-three finish are boosted to +333.
In the sportsbook’s Race Matchups section, bettors can wager on which of two drivers will log the better finishing position.
Additionally, bettors have a few race props to choose from including the over/under of the winning car number and whether the winning car will be even or odd numbered.
At BetMGM, users can bet on which car manufacturer will win the race – between Ford (+150), Chevrolet (+175) and Toyota (+200).