The NASCAR season officially gets revved up on Sunday, Feb. 15, when the checkered flag drops on the 2026 Daytona 500. The race is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on FOX. This NASCAR betting guide provides information for new and veteran sports bettors alike, including where to wager on the 2026 Daytona 500 and popular betting markets for the NASCAR Cup Series season opener.
Where to bet on the 2026 Daytona 500
Here are some available sportsbook promos new users can receive when signing up for a sportsbook and wagering on the 2026 Daytona 500.
Betting on NASCAR and the 2026 Daytona 500
Like most sports, there are hundreds of options across the major sportsbooks that bettors can choose from when wagering on NASCAR. The Daytona 500 odds available at sportsbooks include which driver will win the race, as well as the race team and manufacturer the winning driver represents. Many sportsbooks offer head-to-head matchups between Daytona 500 favorites, as well as groups of drivers where you can pick who finishes highest among them.
You can also pick a driver to finish in the top three, top five, top 10 and even top 20 at some books, lowering your payout but giving you a better chance to cash in. The sportsbooks also have NASCAR futures, including Cup Series odds on series champion and over/unders on driver victories for the season.
Bet on the 2026 Daytona 500 at BetMGM here:
Race winner
The major sportsbooks are in agreement that Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and pole-sitter Kyle Busch are the favorites, with Logano and Blaney at least co-favorites at most of them. That quartet shares co-favorite status at +1200 at bet365 and Caesars, but Logano is the +1000 top choice at FanDuel while Hamlin is +900 favorite at DraftKings, followed by the other three at +1000. Blaney and Logano are co-favorites at both Fanatics (+1000) and BetMGM (+1200).
Austin Cindric, who won at Daytona in 2022, isn’t far behind the favorites, priced at +1400 or +1600 at most sportsbooks. But if you are keen on the former Cup Series Rookie of the Year, you can get odds of +2000 on him to win at DraftKings. Kyle Larson, the 2025 Cup Series champion, ranges anywhere from +1400 (Caesars) to +2000 (FanDuel).
The sportsbooks see William Byron, the 2025 regular-season champ and the two-time defending Daytona 500 champ, having a solid chance to win his third in a row to open the NASCAR season. He is +1400 at DraftKings and BetMGM and bet365 and Caesars (+1800). Byron finished second at last week’s Clash at Bowman Gray, and the winner of that preseason race, Ryan Preece, is anywhere from +2200 (Caesars) to +3250 (Fanatics).
Other drivers expected to be in the mix for the victory include Chase Elliott — he is anywhere from +1300 at Fanatics to +1600 at DraftKings — and Brad Keselowski (+1600 at at Caesars, +2200 at bet365).
Bet on the winner of the Daytona 500 at Fanatics now:
More Daytona 500 odds
You can make Daytona 500 predictions and picks on any number of outcomes from Sunday’s race. You can bet on a driver to finish anywhere from first to within the top 20, and there are bets available on most laps led, team and manufacturer results. There are even over/unders on the winning car number, how many cars will finish on the lead lap and most laps led by any single driver.
BetMGM sets the over/under on the winning car number at 19.5, with both sides priced at -115. Caesars sets four ranges for the winning car number — 0-8 (+275), 9-18 (+260), 19-28 (+300) and 29+ (+165). The sportsbook also has three over/under options, with 19.5 set at the same odds as BetMGM, while it also has 12.5 (Over -225, Under +175) and 22.5 (Over +175, Under -225). At BetMGM and Fanatics, you can get +100 if the winning car sports an odd number in an even/odd wager, with even priced at -115 at BetMGM and -135 at Fanatics.
Caesars has tons of prop bets, including +185 odds on whether a past Daytona 500 winner will be first to the checkered flag and -200 odds on the race to go to overtime. It also has over/unders on the number of drivers to lead a lap (18.5), and over/under on lead changes (46.5), among many other options.
Bet on your favorite Daytona 500 props at Caesars Sportsbook here:
Race finishes
Most of these odds are similar to the Daytona 500 race winner odds, though the payout is decreased because of the lower difficulty. If you think a driver can win but aren’t quite sure, you can pick them for a high finish and have a better chance at a payout.
At bet365, the four favorites are also the top four choices to finish in the top three, with all four priced at +1200 to win and +400 for a top-three finish. At Caesars, Blaney, Busch, Hamlin and Logano are all +1200 to win, but Blaney, Logano and Chase Elliott are favored to finish among the top three at +330. Busch is +500 and Hamlin +600.
Elliott also is among the favorites to finish in the top five at FanDuel, joining Logano as the +160 top choice, just ahead of Blaney (+170). But at BetMGM, Elliott is +225 for a top-five finish, well behind favorites Blaney and Logano (+130). For top-10 wagers — and top 20 at sportsbooks that offer them — you’ll be paying a lot of juice. The quartet of favorites at bet365 are -145 to finish in the top 10, while DraftKings has Hamlin as the -200 favorite. BetMGM has Blaney and Logano priced at -190.
FanDuel has odds on various combinations, with many of the top drivers paired up in double chance bets where you win if either takes the checkered flag. Blaney OR Logano to win is the +550 top choice, followed by Logano/Cindric at +600. There are also triple chance options, and Blaney/Logano/Larson and Logano/Hamlin/Cindric are the +420 favorites in those odds.
On other either/or bets at FanDuel, you can wager on whether one of two specified drivers places within certain finish parameters. For example, it sets a +140 payout if Hamlin OR Cindric finishes in the top five. There are also numerous combo bet options at bet365.
Bet on where your favorite drivers will finish in the 2026 Daytona 500 at FanDuel here:
Team/manufacturer results
Team Penske is the favorite to be the winning race team at most sportsbooks, priced at +350 at Fanatics and Caesars and +370 at FanDuel and DraftKings. Hendrick Motorsports is right behind at +375 at both bet365 and Caesars, +380 at DraftKings and +410 at FanDuel. Joe Gibbs Racing is +400 at Draftkings and +500 at FanDuel and Caesars.
The Hendrick stable includes Byron, Larson, Elliott and Alex Bowman, while Penske boasts Blaney, Cindric and Logano. Gibbs has Hamlin, Briscoe, Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs, but a team like RFK Racing (+750 at FanDuel) with a roster including Chris Buescher, Keselowski and Preece, might be enticing.
Busch is part of the two-car Richard Childress team, along with Austin Dillon, and RCR is +800 at DraftKings and +900 at Caesars. But unless you like Dillon’s chances to win — he’s +5000 at many sportsbooks and +3000 at DraftKings — you should be able to get better odds on Busch to win.
Chevrolet is favored to win as the manufacturer at most books, though Caesars has Ford with a slight edge at +130, ahead of Chevy at +140. The difference is much greater at FanDuel, which has Chevrolet +125 and Ford +170, and DraftKings, which prices them at +115 and +190, respectively. Toyota is third across the board, with a high payout of +325 (Caesars) and a low of +230 (FanDuel)
Among the Chevrolet drivers are Byron, Larson, Busch and Elliott, while Blaney, Logano and Cindric are among those piloting Fords. Hamlin drives a Toyota, and he is the clear favorite to be the top finisher for that manufacturer, priced at +215 at DraftKings, with Christopher Bell next at +500. Busch is the +380 top choice among Chevy drivers, followed by Byron (+550), Larson (+650) and Elliott (+650), and the Ford favorites at DratftKings are Blaney and Logano, both +300.
Bet on the top teams and manufacturers in the 2026 Daytona 500 at DraftKings Sportsbook here:
Head-to-head/group wagers
One of the most fun ways to make Daytona 500 picks is to choose a head-to-head matchup or group wager. You can pick a driver you think is much better than the ones he is grouped with, or pick your favorite driver against one you might not be so fond of in a head-to-head.
The head-to-head matchups are often close to even odds, like with Larson and Hamlin both listed at -110 in their head-to-head at BetMGM. But some matchups can offer a plus-money payout, like in the case of Hamlin vs. Larson at DraftKings. Hamlin is priced at -140 to finish higher in the matchup, with Larson bringing a +105 payout if he does. Some books, like bet365, offer more head-to-head matchups and more that can pay plus-money.
Most of the sportsbooks also offer groups of four drivers, with the bet cashing if you pick the driver with the best finish. At FanDuel, one group includes Blaney (+210), Logano (+200), Larson (+350) and Byron (+290), while another consists of Alex Bowman (+185), Connor Zilisch (+230), Daniel Suarez (+270) and AJ Allmendinger (+390).
BetMGM has some evenly-matched groups, with one including Chase Briscoe (+270), Chris Buescher (+270), Carson Hocevar (+280) and Ryan Preece (+280) and another with Ty Gibbs, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell where all four are priced at +275.
Make head-to-head and group wagers on the 2026 Daytona 500 at BetMGM here:
NASCAR and 2026 Daytona 500 betting strategies
Betting on a driver to win might seem like the best option when you think of wagering on auto racing, and while it is profitable if you cash the bet, that’s not easy to do. There were 14 different winners over the 36 races in last season’s Cup Series, though several drivers managed to win multiple races. Hamlin led the way with six, followed by Rookie of the Year Shane van Gisbergen, who earned five (all on road courses). Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney each had four victories and Chase Briscoe, William Byron and Kyle Larson had three.
Using some combination of your favorites in a double/triple-chance wager could be the good way to go. The payout is lower, but much like in golf, hitting an outright winner isn’t as easy as it might seem.
The safest bets that can still earn a decent payout are on the high finishers. Larson, Briscoe and Blaney all had a series-high 15 top-five finishes in 2025, and Larson and Christopher Bell led with 22 races where they placed in the top 10. Drivers who showed consistency while coming up short of a victory were Alex Bowman and Chris Buescher, who both failed to win but had 16 top-10 finishes. And while Blaney won four times, he had eight DNFs in his Ford.
Failing to finish is a real possibility for anyone at the Daytona 500, where at least one big crash is expected, often as drivers battle on the later laps. That has opened the door for some surprise winners in the past, with Dillon leading just one lap in overtime when he won in 2018 and Michael McDowell doing the same after a crash in 2021. The volatility of super-speedway racing, especially at the end of races, make this a good time to look for value in long shots.
Weather also could come into play at Daytona, and rain is not unusual on Florida’s east coast this time of year. An area of low pressure is making its way south and could arrive Sunday near the time the checkered flag is scheduled to drop. The most likely scenario seems to be scattered showers late in the afternoon and evening. Last season’s Daytona 500 saw two delays that totaled more than three hours and 30 minutes, and the 2020 and 2022 races were pushed to Monday.
Drivers like Larson, Chastain and Byron charge hard early in races, and Logano is known to be strong on restarts, and both can be critical skills in a race that could see several cautions or even be shortened. Four Daytona 500s, including the 2003 and 2009 editions, have been called after the halfway point because of rain.
If you have access to multiple sportsbooks, make sure to check around to get the best odds. As noted above, some drivers are priced much differently depending on the book, so if there’s one you like, shop around. For instance, Hamlin is the +900 favorite to win at DraftKings but can be had for +1500 at Fanatics and FanDuel, and you can get +1600 at BetMGM on Busch, who is a co-favorite at some books.
There are also odds boosts available frequently, where you can get a larger payout than the odds suggest. At bet365, a BetBoost on Joey Logano gives you +1400 odds, as opposed to the +1200 he is listed at. On a $10 bet, that means instead of a $120 profit, you can walk away with $140. Parlays also are available, with DraftKings among those offering pre-set same-race plays, and most books let you build your own.
Place your Daytona 500 bets at Caesars Sportsbook here:
Responsible gaming
All bettors should practice responsible gaming and use the tools at their disposal, like setting betting activity alerts and taking timeouts. DraftKings and BetMGM offer live chat features on their platforms for users to get in touch with support 24/7, and all sportsbooks have contact information for helplines like 1-800-GAMBLER for those who need additional assistance.
FAQ
Can you bet on the Daytona 500?
Yes, you can bet on the Daytona 500 at all the major sportsbooks, with odds available on the winning driver, race team or manufacturer and many other NASCAR props on drivers and teams. There also are options for stage winners, top-5 and top-10 finishes, fastest lap, head-to-head matchups and who will win among a specified group of drivers, among many other wagers.
Which sportsbooks offer betting on the Daytona 500?
All major sportsbooks like bet365, BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, Fanatics and FanDuel offer betting on NASCAR and the Daytona 500. Many sportsbooks even offer live betting so bettors can get a feel for the race and get better odds as it progresses.
Where can you find Daytona 500 betting odds?
You can find NASCAR betting odds at any sportsbook that offers bets on the 2026 Daytona 500, such as DraftKings, Fanatics, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars and bet365.
When can I bet on the Daytona 500?
You can place wagers on NASCAR and the Daytona 500 at any time from the time odds are available until the green flag drops. Many major sportsbooks also offer live betting, where you can get better odds on drivers who might get off to a rocky start. These odds are updated in real time and account for factors like car performance, pit stops and cautions.
Add Comment