Ricky Dimon
The Daytona 500 signals the start of the 2025 NASCAR season and another wide-open battle is expected at the iconic Florida speedway on Sunday.
The Great American Race is an appropriate nickname for the high-speed spectacle and every driver is available at double-digit odds for the 200-lap curtain-raiser. William Byron became the fifth different winner of the event in the last 5 seasons in a delayed Monday race last year, with veteran Denny Hamlin the last driver to take the checkered flag in back-to-back years in 2019 and 2020.
The 2 Duel at Daytona events on Thursday night have set the grid for the main race and now the drivers have to hope they will not be part of any multi-car wrecks, with last year’s edition of ‘The Big One’ involving 23 drivers arriving when there were only nine laps of the race remaining.
2025 Daytona 500 race winner odds
Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook
Kyle Larson +1200
Joey Logano +1300
Kyle Busch +1300
Ryan Blaney +1300
Denny Hamlin +1400
Brad Keselowski +1700
William Byron +1700
Chase Elliott +1700
Christopher Bell +1800
Ryan Gilliland +2400
Austin Cindric +2400
Chase Briscoe +2500
Bubba Wallace +2600
Ryan Bowman +2800
Chris Buescher +2800
Tyler Reddick +3000
2025 Daytona 500 predictions
Kyle Larson heads the odds list for the 2025 Daytona 500 but the 2021 Cup Series champion looks easy to fade given his poor record on superspeedways, as he has yet to win in 47 starts on the longest tracks on the calendar. On top of that, Larson is 1 of 7 drivers who have been moved to the back of the grid after needing to use a back-up car due to damage sustained in Thursday’s Duels.
It has been 10 years since Joey Logano won his only Daytona 500, but the 3-time series champion was second in 2023 and took pole last season, so he can’t be counted out easily. Kyle Busch will be racing in the big race for the 20th time and is yet to win it, with second in 2019 his best result, while last season’s series runner-up Ryan Blaney and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin are next in the odds list.
Here are our favorite picks for Sunday’s big race.
2025 Daytona 500 best bet – Ryan Blaney +1300
Ryan Blaney has had little luck avoiding trouble in his recent trips to Daytona, but the 2023 NASCAR champion looks a likely candidate to add his name to the roll of honor sooner rather than later. Blaney has tackled the Daytona 500 10 times, with runner-up performances in 2017 and 2020 and additional top-10 finishes in 2018, 2022 and 2023.
His excellence at the superspeedway in Talladega (one win in the spring race there and two in the fall event) proves his talent for this kind of racing and he should show up well at the finish if he can avoid getting involved in other people’s accidents. Blaney starts 16th on the grid, but four of the last five winners have begun the first lap in 39th, 17th, 31st and 18th position, so that should not prevent him from putting down a strong challenge.
2025 Daytona 500 best longshot bet – Austin Cindric +2400
The exception in that run of poor-qualifying winners was Austin Cindric, who converted a second-place start to a race win in 2022. The Team Penske driver won at Daytona in 2021 in the Infinity series and has started the week in Florida as if he and the #2 team mean business.
Cindric was second-fastest in qualifying behind pole man Chase Briscoe. He then converted his pole position in Duel 2 to a narrow victory over Erik Jones in a Toyota. Cindric was 22nd in the defence of his Daytona crown last season after an incident on the penultimate lap, but he had run at the front of the race and should figure prominently again.
2025 Daytona 500 – best top 10 finish bet – Alex Bowman -105
Alex Bowman ran into trouble in the Duels on Thursday and will start near the back but the Hendrick Motorsports driver has the potential to work his way through to the front group.
Bowman was 12th-fastest in qualifying but a tangle with Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski in Duel 2 saw him finish 22nd. He has placed fifth and second in this race in the last 2 years, however, and has the talent to make a forward move on Sunday.
