Last week in the NASCAR Cup Series, Ryan Blaney seized the lead after a restart with eight laps to go and held off furious charges from William Byron and Kyle Larson, beating Byron by just 0.077 seconds to set a modern-day record for narrowest margin of victory. Those laps were the only ones that Blaney led on the whole day, and it helped that Kyle Busch gave him a bit of a push on the last restart to jump into the lead. After those first three came Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Matt DiBenedetto, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr to complete the top ten. On Saturday night, the Cup Series moves to Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero Sugar 400.
Check out the updated NASCAR betting odds, along with our suggestions for your wager cards.
NASCAR News: Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 Preview
Driver Odds
| Denny Hamlin | +750 |
| Kyle Larson | +1100 |
| Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, William Byron | +1200 |
| Austin Dillon | +1400 |
| Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch | +1600 |
| Alex Bowman | +1800 |
| Aric Almirola, Christopher Bell, Kevin Harvick | +2000 |
| Matt DiBenedetto, Ricky Stenhouse Jr | +2200 |
| Bubba Wallace, Martin Truex Jr | +2500 |
| Kurt Busch | +2800 |
| Ryan Newman, Tyler Reddick | +3000 |
| Michael McDowell | +3300 |
| Ross Chastain | +3500 |
| Chase Briscoe, Chris Buescher, Cole Custer, Daniel Suarez | +4000 |
| Kaz Grala | +4500 |
| Erik Jones, Ryan Preece | +5000 |
| Corey LaJoie | +6000 |
| Anthony Alfredo, Justin Haley | +10000 |
| Cody Ware | +20000 |
| B.J. McLeod, David Starr, Garrett Smithley, Joey Gase, Josh Bilicki, Landon Cassill, Quin Houff | +25000 |
Denny Hamlin is the only driver ranked in the NASCAR Cup Series top ten without a victory on the season. He does have the second most stage wins, top-five results, top-ten results and laps led. He’s just about always there at the end, so at some point he will turn those performances into a win, and that’s why he’s the favorite here. At Daytona International Speedway, he has won the Daytona 500 three times and has 11 total top-five results in 31 career starts. In 23 of his starts here, he has led at least one lap, so this is a course where he knows how to dominate. Given that this is the last race of NASCAR’s regular season, Hamlin certainly seems due.
Chase Elliott has two victories in 2021, but both of those have come on road courses. Even so, he has been competitive on a variety of tracks, including a runner-up result at the Daytona 500 to start this season. That gave him consecutive runner-up results here, and if he can win here, that would be his first victory at this historic site — and a boost up the odds list to repeat as NASCAR Cup Series champion.
Bubba Wallace is an interesting sleeper pick, because in eight career starts here, he has two top-five results, including a second-place finish in 2018 in his first Daytona 500. If Wallace is to get a slot in the playoffs, he needs to win the whole thing, and so it is hard to imagine any driver with more motivation.
Kevin Harvick won nine races in 2020 but has not won a single race in 2021. His equipment has not been particularly impressive, but even so, at superspeedway races, he has managed to lead laps and snagged a fourth place finish at Talladega. He has six top-five finishes in 25 races in 2021, and he has been in the top five in both superspeedway races this season. On this sort of course, all of the cars have parity, which gives him a chance. He does have a playoff spot on the basis of points, but a victory would give him confidence and momentum.
NASCAR Betting Odds
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