Best Bets for the Daytona 500

This Sunday will officially mark the start of the NASCAR season as well as the 61st running of the Daytona 500. Now everybody knows Daytona and Talladega are the most difficult tracks to bet on as car performance and raw talent usually take a back seat to strategy and luck on the 2.5 mile restrictor plate tracks. For these four super speedway races every year you won’t find much value betting on the favorites to win so instead look for underdogs to win and maybe some favorites to finish top 5. Another good bet for Daytona could be to fade drivers more prone to wrecking in Driver vs Driver matchups such as whoever you can find matched up against Daniel Suarez or Bubba Wallace. This strategy is what we could call the Danica Patrick strategy.

*Disclaimer* I can only find odds to win right now. Will update with top 5 and matchup odds when available.

THE BETS

Christopher Bell +5500

Chris Bell is by far the best value this weekend. As far as Cup experience goes Chris doesn’t have any but that didn’t stop Trevor Bayne from winning the 500 in 2011 in just his 2nd ever cup start despite driving for an underfunded team. As much as Bell is lacking Cup level experience he has that more than made up in talent as he broke the Xfinity series record for wins in a season in 2018 just to break it again in 2019. Christopher Bell is one of the most talented race car drivers in the world and for the first few months of the season he will give us great value until Vegas finally catches on.

Kyle Larson +2500

Kyle Larson is another young world class talent who has won 10 of his 20 off season dirt racing starts including the Chili Bowl. Kyle typically has some tough luck on superspeedways but if he can stay out of trouble for 490 miles he is more than capable of making all the right moves to win.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. +2500

Ricky has earned the unfortunate nickname Wrecky Stenhouse Jr. after his last couple Super Speedway starts but before he’s started those wrecks he’s usually running up front and making every possible move to advance and not get passed even if that means rubbing some fenders at 215 miles per hour. Wrecky essentially arrives to every Daytona 500 with the Ricky Bobby “If you aint first, you’re last” mentality so if he doesn’t start the big one I would expect him to be right in the thick of things at the end.

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