Brad Keselowski will be looking to open the NASCAR season on a winning note when he hits the track on Sunday for the 61st running of the Daytona 500 as a +700 favorite on the 2019 Daytona 500 odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Keselowski is coming off a solid 2018 NASCAR campaign that featured 20 Top-10 finishes and three victories, but the 34-year-old has failed to finish higher than 20th in his past four appearances in the race ahead of Sunday’s event at Daytona International Speedway.
The 2012 NASCAR champion emerged as a contender in last season’s Cup Series standings after posting three consecutive victories at the Bojangles’ Southern 500, Brickyard 400, and South Point 400. However, subsequent shaky runs at Charlotte and Talladega ended Keselowski’s championship hopes and forced him to settle for an eighth-place finish.
Keselowski has struggled in recent trips to the Daytona 500, driving to a 32nd-place finish a year ago, but he has twice cracked the Top 10 at NASCAR’s season-opening event, including a third-place finish in 2014.
Joey Logano begins the defense of his NASCAR Monster Energy Series title closely trailing Keselowski on the NASCAR odds for the race at +800. The 28-year-old took the checkered flag on three occasions last season, including a victory in the season finale at the 2018 Ford EcoBoost 400. Logano has also tallied five career Top-10 finishes at the Daytona 500, including his lone win in the race back in 2015.
Further down the Daytona 500 odds at online betting sites, former race winners Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick are joined by Clint Bowyer at +1000, while Kyle Busch sits alongside Chase Elliott and Aric Almirola at +1200.
Hamlin struggled throughout the 2018 NASCAR campaign, finishing 11th in the standings, and has failed to reach the top of the podium since his victory at the 2017 Bojangles’ Southern 500. However, the 14-year NASCAR veteran has finished fourth or better in five of his past seven appearances in the Daytona 500, including a first-place finish in 2016.
Conversely, Harvick powered to eight race victories in 2018, and took the checkered flag at the 2007 Daytona 500, but finished a distant 31st at last year’s event. Bowyer has never finished higher than fourth in 13 previous appearances at the Daytona 500, and struggled down the stretch last season, finishing out of the Top 20 in four of his final seven races.
