Daytona 500 betting is a bet on a pack race of 40 or 41 cars where the starting spot says little: the last four winners started 31st, 18th, fifth and 26th. The next race is on Sunday, February 21, 2027, at Daytona International Speedway, live on FOX.
Tyler Reddick won the 2026 race on February 15 from 26th on the grid. ESPN’s lap count credits him with leading one lap, the one that counted. Our Daytona 500 odds page follows the market for the next race.
The race at a glance
NASCAR’s 2027 Cup Series schedule puts the race eight days after the Clash at Daytona on Saturday, February 13, with both Duel qualifying races on Thursday, February 18.
- Race day: Sunday, February 21, 2027
- Track: Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida
- Distance: 200 laps, 500 miles, on a 2.5-mile asphalt oval
- Banking: 31 degrees in the turns, 18 at the tri-oval, 3 on the backstretch
- TV and radio: FOX, with MRN and SiriusXM on radio
The 200 laps are a scheduled distance, not a limit. The 2023 race ran 212 laps and the 2025 race 201, so the distance run is not always the distance on the schedule.
How the last four races were won
Start position and laps led come from ESPN’s race records. The fields were 40 cars in 2023 and 2024 and 41 in 2025 and 2026.
| Year | Winner | Started | Laps led |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Tyler Reddick | 26th | 1 |
| 2025 | William Byron | 5th | 10 |
| 2024 | William Byron | 18th | 4 |
| 2023 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 31st | 10 |
No winner in that span led more than 10 laps. Byron won twice and then finished 12th in 2026, going for a third in a row.
The front row has not been a shortcut either. Alex Bowman started first in 2023 and finished fifth, and Chase Briscoe started first in 2025 and finished fourth. The top five in 2026 were Reddick, Stenhouse, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski, and five of the top 10 cars that day were Fords, three Toyotas and two Chevrolets.
The main Daytona 500 bets
The outright bet is on the race winner. Read each price as a chance: a driver at +2500 is priced at 3.8%, and one at +1000 at 9.1%. Those are illustrations; ESPN lists no NASCAR futures for the 2026 or 2027 seasons, so no current price is quoted here.
Top 3, top 5 and top 10 bets pay if the driver finishes in that group. They pay less than an outright on the same driver. Stenhouse, the 2023 winner, would have paid a top 3 bet in 2026 by finishing second.
Driver matchups ask which of two drivers finishes ahead. At FanDuel, whose house rules were approved by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission on March 27, 2025, both drivers must start or the bet is void, and a driver who drops out loses to one who completes more laps. Group bets work the same way across three or more drivers.
How Daytona 500 bets are settled
FanDuel settles NASCAR race bets on the result at the podium presentation. A later inquiry does not change the payout.
The race has to be run within 72 hours of its scheduled start for bets to stand, and a driver who fails to qualify is no action. Props such as cautions, caution laps, lead changes and the number of leaders are settled on official NASCAR results.
Where to go from here
Race-by-race picks are on our NASCAR picks page, and our NASCAR betting guide covers NASCAR betting beyond Daytona. The title race is on our NASCAR championship odds page, and the second series on our Xfinity Series championship odds page.
Paid NASCAR picks are sold by the best handicappers in a membership. Read our handicapper site reviews before you pay for one, and set the price you would take on a driver before the Duels on February 18.