Daytona! The regular season starts here with the Daytona 500. Then, bookends here with the final race of the regular season. The Coke Zero Sugar 400. 15 playoff spots are locked in and set for the playoffs to start next week at Darlington. One spot remains and will be determined Saturday night. Yes, the Cup Race is Saturday night under the lights this week!
17 playoff-eligible drivers will compete for the 16th and final spot. Bubba Wallace currently holds the keys to the spot-on points, sitting 32 points ahead of Ty Gibbs. Gibbs and Daniel Suarez are the two drivers who have a chance to unseat Wallace if they can score enough points.
If any of those 17 drivers wins this race, they punch their ticket to the playoffs and knock Wallace out. There is no longer a must-be top-30 in points requirement. So it’s a win, and you are in for those drivers. If one of the 15 locked in or a part-time driver wins the race, it’ll come down to the points between Wallace, Gibbs, and Suarez.
Betting on superspeedway racing is one of my favorite styles to bet on, but also one of the most risky. You should never bet more than you are willing to lose, and at Daytona, that’s even more true. Approach this race as if you’ll lose it all, and be happy if you win anything. This race will be chaotic and full of wrecks.
BJ Mcloed has finished in the top ten in this Daytona fall race for two straight seasons, and that is a perfect example of how this race will go. That being said, here are some of my favorite bets this week. Look for plus money bets, and bet your favorite driver. Nobody is off the table at Daytona International Speedway. Let’s go, Coke Zero Sugar 400!
Go here for more free NASCAR picks!
HOW!?@AustinDillon3 made it through the big wreck as rain began to fall, then went on to win at Daytona. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/FMYGsYxBoW
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) December 30, 2022
NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway Odds and Best Bets
Odds Via DraftKings Sportsbook
Chase Elliott +1100
Ryan Blaney +1200
Kyle Busch +1200
Joey Logano +1200
Denny Hamlin +1200
Brad Keselowski +1200
William Byron +1400
Chris Buescher +1600
Bubba Wallace +1800
Ross Chastain +2000
Ricky Stenhouse Jr +2000
Kyle Larson +2000
Daniel Suarez +2000
Martin Truex Jr +2200
Austin Dillion +2200
Austin Cindric +2200
Aric Alimorila +2200
Tyler Reddick +2500
Christopher Bell +2500
Alex Bowman +2500
Ty Gibbs +2800
Michael McDowell +2800
Erik Jones +3000
Ryan Preece +3500
Kevin Harvick +3500
Chase Briscoe +3500
AJ Allmendinger +4500
Corey Lajoie +5000
Todd Gilliland +6000
Justin Haley +6000
Josh Berry +6500
Harrison Burton +6500
Austin Hill +7000
Riley Herbst +10000
Chandler Smith +10000
Ty Dillion +30000
Brennan Poole +30000
JJ Yeley +50000
BJ McLeod +100000
Corey Lajoie Top 10 Finish (+200 DraftKings Sportsbook)
In seven of the last nine races at Daytona, Lajoie has finished 18th or better. Finishing these races is the most important factor towards cashing a bet like this. If you can finish 18th, that can easily turn into a top ten in a matter of seconds at Daytona. Lajoie finished fourth in the spring at Atlanta, a track that now falls into the superspeedway category, where he cashed a 33/1 top Chevrolet bet for us on the NASCAR GAMBLING PODCAST.
Lajoie also led at Atlanta with two laps to go last season before wrecking and missing out on his first career win. Maybe that win comes this week (A bet I love at 55/1), but even if he can just score the top ten for us here, it’ll be a positive result at 2/1 odds.
A spot in the #NASCAR Playoffs is on the line this weekend in Atlanta.
Chase Elliott won last year, with heartbreak for Corey LaJoie. pic.twitter.com/MfsfHuTd79
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) July 5, 2023
AJ Allmendinger Top 5 Finish (+550 DraftKings Sportsbook)
This road course ace is very sneakily a good Superspeedway driver. Earlier this season, in the Daytona 500, AJ scored a sixth-place finish. The last time he started a Cup Series race before that was back in 2018, but Allmendinger finished third in that July race at Daytona. Allmendinger, in fact, has five straight Cup Series finishes inside the top ten at Daytona.
In the Xfinity Series, AJ has also done well at Daytona. In four straight Xfinity races at Daytona, Allmendinger has finished inside of the top five, and at Talladega, AJ has finished top three in three of his last four Xfinity series races, including scoring the win there last fall. If he can survive the chaos, which he’s proven to be good at, Allmendinger is a solid bet to score a top-five finish.
Riley Herbst Top 10 Finish (+350 DraftKings Sportsbook)
Riley Herbst will be making his third career NASCAR Cup Series start this weekend at Daytona International Speedway. In his first start at Daytona in the 500 this February, Herbst scored a solid top ten finish. At Talladega, he finished 20th, most importantly, still running at the end of the race.
Both of those starts came in Rick Ware Racing cars, which are capable of a top ten finish, as Riley proved in the spring. This weekend, he’ll be in a third entry for Front Row Motorsports, the #36 car. An entry that will be prepared by Stewart-Haas Racing. Herbst is worth a sprinkle bet to win at 100/1.
Herbst has done it at Daytona already in the Cup Series car as well as getting it done in the Xfinity Series before as well. He finished sixth in the spring Daytona race the day before his top-ten finish in his first career Cup Series start. Last season Riley recorded finishes of 11th and seventh at Talladega while finishing fourth and 15th at Daytona.
Solid showing, Riley Herbst. 👊 @NASCAR @rileyherbst @DAYTONA pic.twitter.com/oyh7ImEGIa
— William Nagel (@William_Nagel_) February 20, 2023
Ryan Blaney to Win (+1300 MGM Sportsbook)
Ryan Blaney is one of the best drivers in NASCAR right now when it comes to Superspeedway racing. This week he’s going a little under the radar, which doesn’t bother me at all. At Daytona, Blaney finished eighth in the Daytona 500 this year and fourth in last year’s 500-mile race. Blaney won this race at Daytona two years ago. In five of the last seven at Daytona, Blaney has finished in the top ten.
Team Penske is one of the best teams when it comes to Superspeedway racing, boasting three of the best in the business in Blaney, Joey Logano, and Austin Cindric, all former Superspeedway race winners. If Team Penske works together, which they usually do. They are a hard team to stop.
.@erik_jones is a winner at Daytona! #CokeZeroSugar400 pic.twitter.com/bKzaeVJCcR
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 8, 2018
Erik Jones to Win (+3500 MGM Sportsbook)
From Ryan at Ifantasyracing.com, taking out this year’s Daytona 500, where Jones was wrecked while running in 9th place on lap 118. On Superspeedways, Jones has had the best driver rating, best average running position (9.4), and averaged leading the second most laps (18.3) with an average finish of 14.5. Jones is consistently one of the better Superspeedway drivers in the series.
His Daytona results have been a little up and down, but looking at Talladega, Jones has a top-ten finish in seven of the last ten races. In four races at Atlanta in the Superspeedway package, Jones hasn’t finished worse than 14th. Jones is a driver usually around at the end, giving him a chance to cash this ticket for you.
Summer break is finally over and we’re Back with more bets! @rjvillagomez & @Husker_Zeeb have a loaded card this week at we get back to racing for the #DutchGP 🎧 https://t.co/XBLAuuTgOu 📺 https://t.co/6Y9X6jgyWW 🗣️https://t.co/QJkbQzF0FZ
— F1GamblingPodcast (@F1GamblingPod) August 22, 2023
