Following a high-speed, rain-delayed race at Chicagoland Speedway, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series continues its pedal to the metal Strategy at Daytona International Speedway this Saturday night at the Coke Zero Sugar 400.
Alex Bowman earned his first Cup series victory a week and he’s +1800 odds to repeat, but it is Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski with odds of +700 who top the oddsboard.
Intertops has Logano and Keselowski as the favorites at +700 followed by Denny Hamlin at +1000, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick at +1100 and Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney and Clint Bowyer in +1400 to round out the top drivers on the oddsboard.
Standout Stats
Ford has won five of the last 10 races at Daytona and Toyota has won three runnings over that span, including the last two in a row, while Chevrolet has just two victories.
There has not been a repeat winner at this course since Jimmie Johnson did so in the 2 races in 2013. Denny Hamlin appears to become the most recent driver to perform it as he won the Daytona 500 in February.
Just once over the past 17 races at Daytona has got the winner started on the pole which was Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2015. The typical starting place for the driver who transported the checkered flag over that interval was 12.53.
Alex Bowman (+1800) picked up the first checkered flag of his Cup series livelihood a week at Chicagoland and has had great qualifying rate at Daytona recently. He’s started first or second in each of the past three runnings in this course, but has finished 10th or worse, so until he can come across the exact same rate from the race, I’ll stay away.
Logano (+700) has had better success throughout the Daytona 500 than he’s in the midseason race in this course. From the 500, he has an average finish position of 13.28, including winning in 2015, but he’s an average finish position of 21.2 from the July race, and it has crashed in each of the past two runnings.
Keselowski (+700) has had a string of terrible luck at Daytona recently, with crashed in four of the past five races but six races ago at this course, he drove to victory lane. He has five wins at Talladega, another restrictor-plate monitor, so he knows how to compete in those races. Start looking for him to be at the hunt Saturday night.
Kyle Busch (+1100) less a favorite seems to be an automated bet, but Daytona has gotten the better of him for most of his career. Busch won the July race in 2008, marking the only time he has forced to victory lane at Daytona, and he’s just three top-five finishes there over the past 14 races, but he was the runner-up in this year’s Daytona 500.
I have been evaporating Kevin Harvick (+1100) all season long since he had not shown evidence of his former dominant self before last week. He looked powerful at Chicagoland, leading 132 of the 267 laps, but finally finished 14th. Harvick has crashed in four of those five races at Daytona since switching to Ford at 2017 but he led multiple laps in three of these runnings. Assuming that he keeps his nose clean, this could be a fantastic place for Harvick.
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