A new season of NASCAR’s Cup Series racing is right around the corner, with the 2021 Daytona 500 slated for Sunday, Feb. 14. With some exciting changes to the 36-point race schedule in the works, the battle for this year’s racing title should be the best ever. Chase Elliott comes in as the defending champion. Yet, the NASCAR Cup Series futures list to win this year’s title runs deep at Bovada online sportsbook.
There are seven drivers at the top of the list before the betting odds start to drop off. That list is made up of:
- Chase Elliott +575
- Denny Hamlin +575
- Kevin Harvick +575
- Kyle Busch +675
- Brad Keselowski +700
- Joey Logano +700
- Martin Truex Jr. +700
The odds slide to +1100 for Kyle Larson and +1200 for Ryan Blaney as the ‘best of the rest.’ Anyone looking to bet longer odds to win the 2021 title can find some solid value in Alex Bowman at +2200 or Matt DiBenedetto at even longer +6600 odds. Unless something crazy happens between the Daytona 500 and the championship race at Phoenix in early November, the rest of the drivers on Bovada’s Cup Series futures list are just filling space on the track. Going back to the top seven drivers’ shortlist, with Elliott’s title run in 2020, Denny Hamlin is the only one on the list without a Cup Series racing title on his racing resume. To me, that adds some tremendous value to his +575 odds to break through this season.
Going back to the 2014 racing season when NASCAR first instituted elimination rounds in the 10-race playoff, Kyle Busch is the only driver to win multiple titles (2015 & 2019). Harvick won the title that initial season. Jimmie Johnson won in 2016 as part of his record-setting seven Cup Series titles. However, he is officially retired from racing right now. Truex won the title in 2017, followed by Logano’s title run in 2018. Keselowski’s lone Cup Series championship season was in 2012.
Hamlin has come close to winning it all on a number of occasions behind the wheel of the No. 11 Toyota. He finished fourth in the final standings last season to qualify for the championship race. Hamlin posted seven Cup Series point-race wins in 2020, which was the second-most behind Harvick’s nine checkered flags. Over the course of his 16-year career of racing at NASCAR’s highest level, Hamlin has placed inside the Top 5 in total points in six different seasons. He also placed fourth in 2019 to prove that this racing team does have what it takes to stay in the title hunt through the entire 36-race schedule.
His most formidable competition for the 2021 racing title could come from Kyle Busch. The two-time champion is coming off a very disappointing run that limited the No. 18 Toyota to just one point-race victory in 2020. Busch managed to qualify for the 10-race playoff but not the championship race. The team was eighth in the final 2020 Cup Series point standings. His Cup Series racing career matches Hamlin’s with 16 seasons racing full time at this level. Going back to his first title run in 2015, Busch qualified for the championship race five years in a row before coming up short in 2020.
