2024 Daytona 500 best bets, odds, expert picks, start time: NASCAR insider loving William Byron

2024 Daytona 500 best bets, odds, expert picks, start time: NASCAR insider loving William Byron

The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series will begin with a bang when the 2024 Daytona 500 takes place on Monday at Daytona International Speedway at 4 p.m. ET. The Dayton 500 2024 was postponed a day due to weather. Superspeedway specialist Brad Keselowski is the 19-2 favorite in the 2024 Daytona 500 odds, followed by Kyle Busch (10-1) and Denny Hamlin (10-1). Defending Cup Series Champion Ryan Blaney, who won this race in 2021, is also one of the Daytona 500 contenders at 11-1. Should you include any of those drivers in your 2024 Daytona 500 bets?

Hamlin is a three-time winner of the Daytona 500, including back-to-back victories in 2019 and 2020. However, longshots have won the race the last three years, so which drivers on the NASCAR odds board have value? Before making any 2024 Daytona 500 picks or NASCAR predictions, you need to see what NASCAR insider Steven Taranto has to say.

Taranto is the lead NASCAR writer for CBSSports.com and chronicles stock car racing with the same thoroughness and passion that he’s had since becoming a full-time race fan in 2001. He has an annual NASCAR media credential and will be covering the 2024 Daytona 500 live.

Taranto also moonlights as a sim racer and has 20 career wins in iRacing. The NASCAR expert publishes a popular weekly NASCAR predictions column and famously called Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez’s breakthrough wins in 2022. Anybody who followed those insights scored significant wins with a pair of longshot winners.

Now, Taranto has analyzed the field and odds for Monday’s 2024 Daytona 500. He’s sharing his best bets at SportsLine.

2024 Daytona 500 expert picks

For the 2024 Daytona 500, Taranto is high on William Byron, even though he’s a 16-1 longshot. He’s a target for anyone looking for a huge payday. The No. 24 driver was able to keep Hendrick Motorsports afloat last season amid injuries to Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman. Byron was a contender for the Cup Series title with six victories, including early-season wins at Phoenix and Las Vegas.

His first Cup Series win came at the 2020 Coke Zero Sugar 400 to earn his first playoff appearance, so he has good memories at Daytona. Byron was briefly in the top seven at the Coliseum in the Los Angeles exhibition to open the season before finishing in tenth place. He is seeking his first Daytona 500 victory, and Taranto expects him to contend for the title on Monday.

Another surprise: Taranto is fading 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson (15-1). Larson is arguably NASCAR’s most dominant driver over the last three years, winning the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship, finishing ninth in 2022, finishing as the runner-up in 2023, and piling up 17 victories in the process. However, there’s not much in his history at superspeedways that would justify him being this high on the 2024 Daytona 500 odds board.

Larson only has five career top-10s in 19 starts at Daytona International Speedway and only has one career top-five finish in 37 starts overall at superspeedways in the NASCAR Cup Series. He hasn’t finished better than 18th in his last five starts at Daytona despite starting three of those races on the pole, one on the outside row and the other in seventh. Close-quarters racing at 200 mph hasn’t been his strong suit, a big reason why Taranto isn’t biting at this price. See what other NASCAR picks he likes at SportsLine.

How to make 2024 Daytona 500 predictions

Taranto has also identified two other drivers in his NASCAR at Daytona best bets. He’s also high on a massive NASCAR longshot that is priced at greater than 50-1 in this week’s NASCAR odds. You can only see who they are here.

So who wins the Daytona 500 2024? And which longshot has the potential to stun NASCAR? Visit SportsLine now to see the 2024 NASCAR at Daytona picks and best bets from a NASCAR insider who called Chastain and Suarez’s breakthrough wins in 2022, and find out.

2024 Daytona 500 odds

See full NASCAR at Daytona picks at SportsLine

Brad Keselowski 19-2

Kyle Busch 10-1

Denny Hamlin 10-1

Ryan Blaney 11-1

Joey Logano 12-1

Chase Elliott 14-1

Chris Buescher 15-1

Kyle Larson 15-1

William Byron 16-1

Bubba Wallace 20-1

Christopher Bell 22-1

Ty Gibbs 25-1

Martin Truex Jr. 25-1

Ross Chastain 28-1

Austin Cindric 28-1

Austin Dillon 28-1

Erik Jones 28-1

Alex Bowman 30-1

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 30-1

Tyler Reddick 30-1

Chase Briscoe 35-1

Michael McDowell 40-1

Josh Berry 40-1

Ryan Preece 45-1

Daniel Suarez 50-1

Harrison Burton 60-1

Justin Haley 60-1

Corey Lajoie 60-1

Jimmie Johnson 60-1

Noah Gragson 60-1

John Hunter Nemechek 60-1

Carson Hocevar 65-1

AJ Allmendinger 65-1

Todd Gilliland 70-1

David Ragan 75-1

Zane Smith 75-1

Riley Herbst 85-1

Daniel Hemric 90-1

Anthony Alfredo 150-1

Kaz Grala 150-1

BJ McLeod 250-1