The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship ended on November 2, 2025, at the Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. Kyle Larson, one of the four NASCAR Playoffs finalists, finished third in that race, earning the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship, his second title. Larson, who finished in sixth place in 2024, first won a NASCAR title in 2021. The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series begins on Sunday, February 15, 2026, with the 68th running of the Daytona 500.The race is the first of 36 on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
William Byron is the defending Daytona 500 champion. Byron is among the betting favorites to win in 2026. The driver of the No. 24 Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports also won the 2024 Daytona 500. If Byron wins in 2026, he will become the first driver to win the Daytona 500 three times in a row. As a back-to-back winner, Byron joins Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Sterling Marlin, and Denny Hamlin.
Below, we look at the early betting odds, picks, and predictions for the Daytona 500, the first race of the 2026 NASCAR season.
Three-time NASCAR champ Joey Logano finished the 2025 season in seventh place, one year after winning the title in 2024. The 35-year-old driver of the No. 22 Ford for Team Penske has won the Daytona 500 once, capturing the checkered flag in 2015. He was the pole winner in 2024. Logano did not finish the race, placing 32nd. In 2025, Logano qualified fourth, but once again failed to complete the race, ending up in the No. 35 spot for the day.
Despite his poor finishes in the last two Daytona 500 races, Logano placed second in 2023 and in the top six between 2016 and 2019.
Logano won one race in 2025, the 2025 Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. He had seven top-five finishes last year, 13 top-10’s and led 577 laps. The Daytona 500 was one of the four races he did not finish. He placed 27th in the second race of the year at Daytona, the Coke Zero Sugar 400.
The 31-year-old Ryan Blaney has been a NASCAR Cup driver since 2014. He has never won the Daytona 500, but he has come close, finishing as the runner-up in 2017 and 2020. Blaney has also finished inside the top 10 of the annual race in 2018 (seventh), 2022 (fourth), 2023 (eighth), and 2025, when he placed seventh. Blaney started the 2025 Daytona 500 in the No. 20 spot.
The driver of the No. 12 Ford for Team Penske won the NASCAR Cup Championship in 2023. He finished second in 2024 and dropped to sixth in 2025.
Blaney tied for the third most wins during the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season with four. He had 11 top-five finishes and 16 finishes inside the top 10. Blaney led an impressive 851 laps last year. He failed to finish eight races.
Austin Cindric took over the No. 2 car for Team Penske and replaced a CUP champ in Brad Keselowski. In his first race as a full-time driver, Cendric won the 2022 Daytona 500 as a rookie. At 23, his victory made him the second-youngest winner of the race. Cindric has not won a second Daytona 500, but the now 27-year-old is among the betting favorites to win the 2026 edition of the race.
Cindric remains with Team Penske. He is coming off a 14th-place finish in the Cup standings in 2025. He has never placed higher than 11th at the end of the NASCAR season, taking that spot in 2024.
Cindric finished the 2025 Daytona 500 in eighth place, his best finish since his rookie year.
At the end of the 2025 season, Cindric had one win, two top-five finishes, and five finishes inside the top ten. He failed to finish four races and led 325 laps on the year.
Once you are all up to speed on the latest NASCAR Cup Series news and information, make sure to check out the fantastic array of resources for you over at SBS. Of course, for even more analysis on the topic covered here, you should bookmark our NASCAR betting sites rundown. On this page, you can find a variety of awesome information related to the sport, including the latest betting markets and more. Additionally, for those on the go, another fantastic page to familiarize yourself with is the best betting apps breakdown, which covers all the nuances of mobile betting sitesand beyond. Finally, for those interested in maximizing their wagers, look no further than the best bonus betting sites guide, which contains a catalog of the latest and greatest welcome bonus offers.
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