On Saturday, NASCAR’s Cup Series will conclude the regular season with the running of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. As things currently stand, 15 drivers are locked into the playoffs, and Bubba Wallace has a decent-sized cushion in the points battle for the final 16th position. However, Daytona is one of those rare venues that offers unpredictable superspeedway action that often yields surprise winners. Therefore, several drivers like Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Ty Gibbs, and others will be trying to earn a victory to steal the final playoff position!
From a betting perspective, the superspeedway venues, like Daytona, are very volatile in the fact that it is extremely hard to predict the outright winner. Even before the Next Gen Car, the superspeedways were known as the equalizer, and the parity is even greater with the new car. Therefore, everyone in the field feels like they have a chance at winning this Saturday. While that does not help us narrow down our betting selections, betting odds are more favorable at the superspeedways than traditional ovals. Therefore, with a little strategy, we can take more drivers and have better ROI potential with our selections to justify our action.
Daytona: Fast Facts
- Denny Hamlin (3) leads all active drivers with the most wins at Daytona.
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, and Kevin Harvick each have two wins at Daytona.
- Austin Cindric, Justin Haley, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Aric Almirola, Michael McDowell, and Erik Jones are also former winners at Daytona.
- There have been eight different winners in the last eight races at Daytona.
- Bubba Wallace has the best average finishing position (14.0) among active drivers with at least five starts.
- Austin Cindric has finished 1st, 3rd, and 23rd in the three starts at Daytona with the Next Gen Car.
- Austin Dillon has produced a 15.6 career average finishing position at Daytona, which is 3rd among active drivers.
- Kyle Larson’s (22.4) and Brad Keselowski’s(23.1) average finishing positions at Daytona are their worst among all active tracks with five or more starts.
- There have been at least 35 lead changes in each of the last four races at Daytona.
In reality, the superspeedways are impossible to predict because the tight racing often leads to accidents that can wipe out numerous cars. In fact, part of the struggle is just making it to the end of these superspeedway races. Therefore, when we talk about potential betting targets, we should be looking for drivers that consistently run towards the front of the field and also possibly those drivers that have a knack for being around at the finish. With those thoughts in mind, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney are probably your best superspeedway talents in the field. All three drivers have shown incredible superspeedway results and consistently run towards the top of the field. I would strongly encourage betting cards to have one or two of those guys as strong lineup anchors.
As we look further in the field, we really must consider betting “value” into our selection equation. As I mentioned before, it is possible for anyone to win this race on Saturday. Therefore, we must ensure that our selections are producing enough ROI to warrant consideration. If you look at recent superspeedway trends, especially at Daytona, Austin Cindric, Brad Keselowski, and Chris Buescher are among the names that I consider will have enough ROI to warrant betting consideration.
All 3 of those drivers are part of the Ford manufacturer camp, which has won 3 of the last four races and appears to be peaking at the right time. The RFK duo of Keselowski and Buescher has worked together well in these races, and I believe they could be poised for another winning opportunity. However, I also would not rule out some team orders from Hendrick Motorsports and Trackhouse Racing as they try to help guys like Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, and Daniel Suarez get into the playoffs. Rest assured, there will be big team efforts to get those guys to victory lane.
