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The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Daytona International Speedway on Sunday for the penultimate race of the 2024 regular season. It’s been 17 weeks since the Cup Series ran a race at a true drafting track. Tyler Reddick, who won last week, won the last drafting race at Talladega in April by avoiding late race chaos.
Chaos and big wrecks that collect lots of cars are a staple of pack draft races. Having a strong spidey sense and knowing how to avoid that chaos is critical to success at Daytona. So as we head into the Saturday night race for 160 laps under the lights of Daytona, I am making my first bet of the week on an experienced driver who has shown the ability to find victory lane at this type of racing.
This number at FanDuel immediately jumped out at me as it’s significantly longer than Logano’s odds at any other book. Most books have Joey priced at +1200 for Saturday. A few have him as short as +900.
Looking at Front Runners from Win the Race, over the 2023 and 2024 seasons no other driver has led more laps at Daytona and Talladega than Logano. Logano’s 138 laps led account for just over 12% of all the laps he has completed at these two tracks. His 138 laps led are also nearly twice as many as the next driver on the laps led list, Chase Briscoe, who has led just 76 laps over those six events. Additionally, unlike Briscoe, whose laps led are almost all from a single race, Logano has led laps in every single race and has led double digit laps in four of six races. That includes leading 45 laps here at the Daytona 500 in February and 21 laps at Talladega in April.
In addition to his laps led at Daytona and Talladega Logano has a win at the mini-drafting track of Atlanta last spring. He has also led a significant number of laps at all three Atlanta races over the past two seasons. Again that includes 27 laps earlier this year, when he had to start at the back of the field due to a penalty.
Finally, there is nothing stopping Logano from going all out for a win. Along with Logano, both of his Team Penske teammates are locked into the playoffs. So Logano is free to look out for himself this weekend.
I wouldn’t bet this at less than +1500, but at that price I’m in on Logano for half a unit.
