Following a high-speed, rain-delayed race at Chicagoland Speedway, the Dragon Energy NASCAR Cup Series continues its pedal to the metal Strategy in Daytona International Speedway this Saturday night at the Coke Zero Sugar 400.
Alex Bowman made his first Cup series victory a week and he has +1800 chances to replicate, but it’s Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski with odds of +700 who top the oddsboard.
Intertops has Logano and Keselowski as the favorites at +700 followed closely by Denny Hamlin in +1000, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick at +1100 and Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney and Clint Bowyer in +1400 to round out the top drivers on the oddsboard.
Standout Stats
Ford has won five of the last ten races at Daytona and Toyota has won three runnings over that interval, including the last two in a row, while Chevrolet has just two victories.
There hasn’t been a repeat winner at this track since Jimmie Johnson did thus in the 2 races at 2013. Denny Hamlin looks to become the most recent driver to do it won the Daytona 500 in February.
Only once over the last 17 races in Daytona has the winner started on the pole which was Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2015. The average starting place for the driver who transported the checkered flag during the span was 12.53.
Alex Bowman (+1800) picked up the first checkered flag of his Cup series livelihood a week in Chicagoland and has had great qualifying speed at Daytona recently. He’s begun first or second in each of the past three runnings in this track, but has finished 10th or worse, so until he can find exactly the exact same speed from the race, I’ll stay away.
Logano (+700) has had better success during the Daytona 500 than he’s in the midseason race at this track. From the 500, he’s an average finish position of 13.28, including winning in 2015, but he’s an average finish position of 21.2 from the July race and has dropped in each of the past two runnings.
Keselowski (+700) has had a string of bad luck at Daytona recently, with crashed in four of the past five races there, but six races ago at this course, he drove to victory lane. He has five wins at Talladega, another restrictor-plate track, so he knows the way to compete in those races. Start looking for him to be at the hunt Saturday night.
Kyle Busch (+1100) less a favorite seems to be an automatic wager, but Daytona has gotten the better of him for most of his career. Busch won the July race in 2008, marking the only time he’s driven to victory lane at Daytona, and he’s only three top-five endings there on the past 14 races, however he was the runner-up in this year’s Daytona 500.
I’ve been evaporating Kevin Harvick (+1100) all season long since he hadn’t shown signs of his former leading self until last week. He looked powerful at Chicagoland, leading 132 of the 267 laps, but ultimately finished 14th. Harvick has crashed in four of those five races in Daytona since switching to Ford in 2017 but he led multiple laps in three of those runnings. Assuming he keeps his nose clean, this could be a good place for Harvick.
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