NASCAR is unusual because it’s a sports league that starts its season with its most important and biggest event. That’s the Daytona 500, also called the “Great American Race,” and the 62nd running is this Sunday. The first race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season represents the beginning of the end for the “Generation 6” cars in the series. Let’s see how the NASCAR betting odds will be for this year Daytona 500.
Daytona 500 2020 NASCAR Betting Lines & Race Preview
- When: Sunday, 2:30 PM ET
- Where: Daytona International Speedway
- TV: Fox
- Stream: Fox Sports Go
- Radio: MRN
Only three drivers have repeated in the Daytona 500 and Denny Hamlin is +900 to make it four and win this race for the third time overall. Last year, Hamlin led a top-three sweep for Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas. Hamlin, driving the No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, edged Kyle Busch (No. 18 M&M’s Chocolate Bar Toyota) by 0.138 seconds. Erik Jones (No. 20 Sport Clips Toyota) finished third, 0.294 back.
JGR became the second team in NASCAR history to sweep the Daytona 500 podium. Hendrick Motorsports did it in 1997 with Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Ricky Craven.
The win required “NASCAR Overtime” due to late-race incidents and two red flag periods that extended the race to 207 laps – seven laps past the scheduled distance. A Turn 3, 21-car incident on Lap 191 necessitated a red flag while also setting the stage for a late-race shootout.
Among all active drivers in this race, no one has led more laps at Daytona than Hamlin with 442. Across his 28 career performances at Daytona International Speedway, Hamlin has clocked 16 top-20 finishes, nine top-10 finishes, eight top-5 finishes and two wins (2016, 2019).
Joey Logano is also +900. He won in 2015. There were two big wrecks during the race, one with 19 laps to go for Justin Allgaier and Ty Dillon, brought out a red flag to ensue cleanup on the track, and one on lap 202 at a scheduled green-white-checker finish. Last week, Joey Logano got turned by Kyle Busch on Lap 66 of 75 of the Busch Clash. There was significant damage to Logano’s Ford. Logano entered the race with a seven-race streak of results sixth or better in the Busch Clash.
Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott are all +1200. Harvick won here in 2007. Running fifth with half a lap to go, Harvick picked up a push and surged to the front to nip Mark Martin by 0.02 seconds at the line. Most of the rest of the field crashed across the line behind them. Neither Keselowski nor Elliott has won here, although Elliott’s dad Bill did twice.
Erik Jones is +1800 after winning last week’s Busch Clash. That win wasn’t Jones’ lone success in Daytona, either. He got his first career Cup Series win in the 2018 July race and followed that up with a third in last year’s 500. Jones posted an average finish of 19.75 on superspeedways last year. Jones average finish of 19.75 ranked him 21st among 40 drivers who ran at least half of the races at Daytona and Talladega.
Seven-time points champion Jimmy Johnson is +2000. He swept Daytona’s Victory Lane in 2013 and then scored top-fives in three of the next four races. He hit a lull in the next three years with only one top-15 in six races at Daytona, but rebounded in 2019. Johnson finished ninth in the Daytona 500 and was third in the Coke Zero 400. This is Johnson’s last season in the driver’s seat, as the Hendrick Motorsports legend announced in November he will retire after 2020.
Daytona 500 Expert Pick
Bet Kyle Busch at +1600. He has come close to winning this race a few times but is yet to.
