You have to go all the way back to Sunday, February 19, 2023, to find the most recent instance of a driver not named William Byron winning the NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.<\/p>\n
Byron won it under caution in 2024, and he drove from ninth to first on the final lap in 2025, avoiding a multi-car pileup on the back straightaway along the way, to become the fifth driver to win the “Great American Race” in back-to-back years.<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin had been the most recent back-to-back winner, and his fifth place finish in 2021 was actually the best we’ve seen out of a back-to-back winner in a three-peat bid. No driver has ever won the race three years in a row.<\/p>\n
Given the unpredictable nature of superspeedway racing, Byron has as good of a chance as anybody to lift the Harley J. Earl Trophy yet again next month. At DraftKings Sportsbook<\/a>, he’s listed third at +1100.<\/p>\n As usual, there is no clear-cut favorite to win the Daytona 500; drafting tracks tend to be major wild cards, and the “Big One” is never more than a hiccup away from collecting half the field (and sometimes all of the favorites, quite frankly).<\/p>\n It’s very possible that this year’s Daytona 500 won’t even come from this group, but here’s who DraftKings has listed as the six drivers with the best chance of preventing a Byron three-peat.<\/p>\n Ryan Blaney, Team Penske<\/p>\n Odds: +1000<\/p>\n While there are definitely more decorated drivers than Ryan Blaney without a Daytona 500 win, the fact that he has five superspeedway wins, including two at Daytona, since 2019, means there probably isn’t a driver more “due” for a Daytona 500 win than Blaney is.<\/p>\n He is the most recent winner at Daytona (August 2025), and he is a two-time runner-up in the one that has eluded him.<\/p>\n Joey Logano, Team Penske<\/p>\n Odds: +1000<\/p>\n Team Penske tends to show up with race-winning speed whenever the Cup Series visits a superspeedway, and Joey Logano has six career superspeedway wins, including one in the 2015 Daytona 500.<\/p>\n His results in such races have been a bit of a mixed bag lately, with just two top 10 finishes in his 16 most recent drafting track starts, but he has led laps in 18 such races in a row, with double-digit laps led in 15 of those events.<\/p>\n Austin Cindric, Team Penske<\/p>\n Odds: +1200<\/p>\n Two of Austin Cindric’s three career victories have come in superspeedway races, including one in the 2022 Daytona 500 when he was making his first ever start as a full-time driver.<\/p>\n He nearly won the race for a second time in 2025, which would have allowed him to eclipse one of Richard Petty’s old records<\/a>. Don’t let his presumed status as Team Penske’s “weak link” fool you.<\/p>\n Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing<\/p>\n Odds: +1400<\/p>\n I think Denny Hamlin has single-handedly turned the saying “You either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain” into “You either die a villain or you live long enough to become the hero<\/a>“.<\/p>\n It would have seemed blasphemous to write in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, or 2025, but without going into too much detail here<\/a>, if Hamlin opens up the 2026 season by becoming the sport’s third four-time Daytona 500 winner, it’s something that would energize the NASCAR fanbase \u2013 in a good way.<\/p>\n Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports<\/p>\n Odds: +1400<\/p>\n Of all track types, superspeedways have definitely been Kyle Larson’s worst; he has yet to win on one. Yet in 2025, he secured his two best finishes ever, placing third at Atlanta Motor Speedway and second at Talladega Superspeedway.<\/p>\n Even his sixth place finish at Daytona in August was his best at the track since 2016 and tied for his best ever there. Is the reigning series champion due?<\/p>\n Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports<\/p>\n Odds: +1400<\/p>\n Chase Elliott is another driver who has historically found success on superspeedways, but he has yet to win at Daytona.<\/p>\n He is a two-time Atlanta winner and a two-time Talladega winner, but his best finishes at Daytona are back-to-back runner-up finishes, first in the 2020 summer race and then in the 2021 Daytona 500.<\/p>\n Honorable mentions: RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski<\/a> (+1600), Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell (+1600), Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch (+1800), 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick (+2000), Trackhouse Racing’s Connor Zilisch (+2000), Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe (+2000)<\/p>\n Full Daytona 500 odds can be found here<\/a> and are always subject to change.<\/p>\n