Opening Daytona 500 Odds & Best Early Bets to Make (2026)

• Superspeedway randomness is real. That does not mean every number is fair.
• One elite driver is being priced like a tier too low.
• Read on for our best early Daytona 500 bets!

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It is only fitting that NASCAR schedules its Super Bowl equivalent to kick off the season. The Great American Race. Winning it forges careers. Nobody remembers who finished second.

Except us.
Because that is literally our job.

There is no one more excited than the crew at @SpeedwaySteve2 Headquarters. The NFL season slog is finally over, and coach has put us back in the game. Just call us the Pistol Pete of NASCAR betting, because we’re looking to fire early and often.

Daytona 500 Odds

Odds available at DraftKings as of February 9, 2026 at 6:38pm EST.

Denny Hamlin is the oddsmakers’ favorite at +900, implying a win probability of 10.0 percent. William Byron, the defending back-to-back Daytona 500 champion, sits just behind him at +1000, implying a 9.1 percent chance to win.

Daytona 500 Weekend Schedule

It is a unique weekend for NASCAR. Speedweeks are electric, packed with action, and if you are a motorsport gambling analyst, just a little exhausting.

• Wednesday, February 11
  • 10:00am – Practice 1
  • 8:15pm – Qualifying
• Thursday, February 12
  • 7:00pm – Duel Qualifying Race 1
  • 8:45pm – Duel Qualifying Race 2
• Friday, February 13
  • 5:35pm – Practice 2
• Saturday, February 14
  • 3:00pm – Practice 3
• Sunday, February 15
  • 2:30pm – Daytona 500

The biggest stars on the biggest stage. pic.twitter.com/zS4HHJW2Dh

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 9, 2026

Wednesday’s single-car qualifying sets the front row for Sunday’s Daytona 500. The rest of the qualifying results determine the grid for Thursday night’s Duel races. Those 60-lap Duels then finalize the starting lineup for the main event.

Yes, it is confusing.
The good news is we can bet on all of it.

Daytona Super-Speedway Track Facts

Daytona is a 2.5-mile asphalt superspeedway with 31 degrees of banking in the corners. Pack racing will be the soup du jour, giving us those gorgeous two and three-wide shots on television.

What the broadcast does not always show is the chess match happening at 190 mph.

Manufacturers will team up and play favorites. Within those manufacturers, teams will help each other. Drivers will manipulate the draft, manage fuel, and quietly position themselves for the final 20 laps, assuming they survive the ever-looming Big One.

It is riveting stuff.
It is also a brutal handicap.

But that’s why we are here. To sort through the mayhem and point you toward the pay window.

So, where should we start?

Daytona 500 Best Early Bets to Make

• Outright Winner
  Kyle Larson (+1800, BetRivers)
• Top-10 Finish
  Kyle Larson (+140, BetRivers)

Let us take a swing with the best pure racing driver on the planet.

Kyle Larson is not traditionally viewed as a superspeedway ace, and that is fine with us. Last year, we featured Larson to win the comparable Talladega playoff race. He was leading in overtime before running out of fuel on the backstretch.

Close.

Painful.

But instructive.

He won a stage that day, giving him four stage wins across six superspeedway races in 2025. Side note, we do not hate a small play on Larson to win Stage 1 (+1000) and Stage 2 (+1400) at Caesars right now. It would be prudent to wait and shop numbers once more sportsbooks post all of their markets.

Katelyn’s doing it … again! Ready to start a new @NASCAR season down in @DAYTONA! https://t.co/QruJKONqxj pic.twitter.com/a6h0rbTYLp

— Kyle Larson (@KyleLarsonRacin) February 9, 2026

But let’s be honest. Do not do that. If you are anything like me, you are probably going to forget. You are going to see this paragraph again on Sunday and think, “How do I miss that one?” Just do it now and save yourself the regret spiral. Am I right?

Larson ranks fourth in our superspeedway matrix for this weekend’s race, yet oddsmakers are pricing him like the seventh to tenth-best option. Listen, I am not saying we’re right and they’re wrong.

But we are definitely right.

Last season, Larson posted the second-best average running position and spent the second-most laps inside the top-15 at superspeedways…trailing only Joey Logano in both categories. He followed that up with finishes of third at Spring Atlanta, second at Spring Talladega, and sixth at Fall Daytona.

Young money is figuring out the drafting thing.

A new season awaits. pic.twitter.com/2hUBA8BWJ5

— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) February 8, 2026

Matchups

• Kyle Larson over Austin Cindric (+105, TheScoreBet)
• Ty Gibbs over Connor Zilisch (+105, TheScoreBet)

This number is about experience. Gibbs has laps, data, and manufacturer support on his side. Zilisch is immensely talented, but Daytona has a way of humbling even the fastest learners. Any plus-money matchup in a superspeedway has our attention, and we’re happy to gobble this one up.

Final Thoughts

The Daytona 500 does not reward perfection. It rewards survival, timing, and restraint. Our early bets should reflect that reality, leaning into drivers with strong median outcomes rather than chasing pure chaos equity. Those longshot darts are for later in the week.

For now, we will take our chances with the math.
And with Kyle Larson.