“Between Bets” is an article series revealing our staff’s best wagers across the NFL, College Football, NASCAR and PGA Tour. This edition’s bets feature our favorite wagers for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Author’s note: superspeedway races are oftentimes completely nonsensical in their finishing orders, as you’ll know. This is especially the case at the summertime Daytona race, normally the regular season finale, where so many teams and drivers go all-in to win their way into the playoffs. Rather than choosing individual drivers, I’ve chosen three teams to watch for this weekend at Daytona, all of which have at least one driver that must win to earn a playoff berth.
(Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook)
2024 Coke Zero Sugar 400 Betting Picks: Outrights
- Richard Childress Racing (RCR)
- Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) Racing
- Spire Motorsports
Richard Childress Racing (Kyle Busch +1200 | Austin Dillon +3000)
The talk of the garage of late has, of course, been Richard Childress Racing since Richmond. With Austin Dillon’s victory there no longer counting toward playoff eligibility, both RCR cars are in a must-win position. Dillon has won twice at the “World Center of Racing,” including in 2022, to earn a playoff spot. In each of the four other Next Gen races here, he’s finished 25th or worse, ending up on the “wreckers” side of checkers or wreckers.
As for Kyle Busch, he may be the driver hungriest for a win in the garage. He’s won in each of his 19 full-time Cup seasons and naturally wants to continue that streak. Busch’s second-best odds to win at +1200 on DraftKings are a bit optimistic, but we know the talent and desire are there. Busch has led laps in the last six and 11 of the last 12 Daytona races, finishing no worse than P19 in the Next-Gen era.
RFK Racing (Chris Buescher +1200 | Brad Keselowski +1200)
I have a firm belief that RFK Racing will do all it can from the moment the haulers pull into the racetrack to try to control this race weekend. DraftKings thinks the same, with both Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski at joint-second-best odds to win at +1200.
Buescher is the defending champion of this race and still needs a victory to lock down a playoff spot, though a good points day could go a long way if others on the bubble crash out.
Keselowski was runner-up to Buescher last summer and is still searching for that elusive Daytona 500 win, making this race good practice for accomplishing that in a way as well. He won the 2016 summer Daytona race and is among the winningest drivers at Talladega as well, with six victories there.
Spire Motorsports (Corey LaJoie +4000 | Carson Hocevar +6000 | Zane Smith +7000)
Picking a Spire Motorsports car to go to victory lane is perhaps the ultimate wild and crazy choice, which, based on the odds, clearly isn’t likely to happen. But you can’t rule it out, especially when it’s happened before thanks to weather in 2019.
Each of this trio would need a win to earn a playoff berth. Neither Carson Hocevar nor Zane Smith are known much for superspeedway prowess. Hocevar is probably just as likely to cause “the big one” as he is to finish the race at all.
But Corey LaJoie does have some talent at superspeedways that can’t be ignored, especially for a driver with nothing to lose. Five of LaJoie’s career T10s finishes have come at Daytona, including a P4 in this year’s 500.
If the Spire boys try to follow the old Kaulig Racing model of sticking together and trophy hunting, they might just be lucky and good enough to shock the sport.
Check out all of our content for the 2024 Coke Zero Sugar 400:
- PropKings: 2024 Coke Zero Sugar 400
- Between Bets: 2024 Coke Zero Sugar 400 Outrights
- NASCAR DFS Picks, Tiers & Rankings: 2024 Coke Zero Sugar 400
Thanks for reading my best bets for the 2024 Coke Zero Sugar 400. Be sure to catch us live every Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. EST on The Backroad! Also, follow me on Twitter/X @ehicks39 for more NASCAR takes and betting advice.
*Photo Credit: Matthew O’Haren – USA TODAY Sports*
