Daytona 500: NASCAR betting odds, preview, and value picks

The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season begins this Sunday with the 64th running of the Daytona 500. The Great American Race has produced it’s fair share of fantastic finishes over the years. That includes last year’s unbelievable ending which featured a last-lap crash, and Michael McDowell taking the checkered flag for the first time in his career.

Due to the unpredictable nature of superspeedways like Daytona, along with the regular-season unveiling of the Next Gen car, the listed odds are high on just about every driver in the field. In fact, favored Denny Hamlin (+900) is the only one in the field lower than double-digits.

Here are our top three value selections for the Daytona 500.

Chase Elliott (+1100)

Chase Elliott has enjoyed plenty of recent success at Daytona International Speedway, but doesn’t have a win to show for it. That could change on Sunday for the 2020 Cup Series champion.

Elliott was the runner-up on two straight occasions over this course before settling for eighth in the last Cup Series race over this course in August. He has two stage wins and another two placings over his last four visits to Daytona, and led 62 laps in that span.

The No. 9 Chevrolet driver had a good qualifying run, and will start in 11th place.

Ryan Blaney (+1200)

Ryan Blaney may not be the defending Harley J. Earl Trophy recipient, but he is the most recent Cup Series driver to win a points-paying race at Daytona, taking the Coke Zero Sugar 400 last August.

That race wasn’t just a fluke either, as Blaney has been one of NASCAR’s better drivers on superspeedways of late. He has three victories over the last nine Cup Series races conducted on superspeedways – two of the three coming at Talladega – with three additional Top 10 finishes and 131 laps led. That includes a runner-up result in the 2020 Daytona 500, in which he placed in both stages.

Blaney will begin his day in seventh position.

Tyler Reddick (+3000)

The idea behind the Next Gen car was to make assembling the car easier and more affordable, thus putting the drivers on a more level playing field so that the races are won on the track on raceday, rather than in the garage during the week.

If this holds true, drivers like Tyler Reddick in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 8 Chevrolet should have an easier time going up against the behemoths at Penske Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Hendrick Motorsports in 2022. A potential breakout season could begin for Reddick in the Daytona 500.

Reddick – a back-to-back champion in the Xfinity Series before jumping up to the Cup Series in 2019 – won the 2018 POWERSHARES QQQ 300 over this course in February of that year. He’s not enjoyed that kind of luck at Daytona in the Cup Series, crashing in his first three starts. But he was fifth in the August 2021 race here, which helped punch his ticket into last year’s playoffs.

Reddick will roll off the grid in 15th place.