NASCAR at Daytona: How to watch, schedule, favorites originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
For the second and final time this season, the NASCAR Cup Series is heading to Daytona Beach.
Daytona International Speedway will host the series this weekend for the final race of the 2022 regular season, with one final playoff spot up for grabs.
A high-banked, 2.5-mile superspeedway, Daytona is known for its high speeds, massive crashes and surprise winners. Rookie Austin Cindric won the Daytona 500 back in February, and four of the last six Daytona races have crowned a first-time winner.
Here’s everything you need to know for the Coke Zero Sugar 400:
Daytona entry list
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Thirty-seven drivers are on the Daytona entry list. Kurt Busch remains out of the No. 45 car with a concussion, so Ty Gibbs will make his sixth straight start. Other part-time Cup drivers racing at Daytona include Daniel Hemric, Noah Gragson, Landon Cassill and David Ragan.
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Here's the full list:
When is the NASCAR Daytona race?
This race weekend features qualifying before the race, but there will be no practice sessions.
There are two rounds of qualifying, which begins on Friday at 5 p.m. ET. In the first round, all 37 drivers get one single lap around the speedway. The 10 fastest drivers will advance to the second round, while positions 11 through 37 will be locked into their starting spot.
The 10 drivers who advance will get one lap in the second round, and their speeds will determine the top-10 starting positions.
The Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona begins at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday.
How to watch NASCAR this weekend
NASCAR action this weekend will be on USA Network, NBC and Peacock.
Qualifying coverage on Friday is set to begin at 5 p.m. ET on USA Network. Saturday’s coverage will air on NBC and stream on Peacock, beginning with the race at 7 p.m. ET. The extensive post-race show will air exclusively on Peacock following the checkered flag.
Coverage before, during and after Saturday’s race can be streamed on the NBC Sports app and on Peacock.
NASCAR playoff standings entering Daytona
Daytona is the final race of the 2022 regular season before the 10-week playoffs begin next week at Darlington.
Only 16 drivers make the playoffs, and drivers secure a berth by winning a race or scoring the most points among non-winners.
Fourteen of the 16 playoff spots are taken by race winners, with two spots currently filled based on points. Kurt Busch was set to make the playoffs as the 15th winner, but he will not compete due to a concussion. If any winless driver in the top 30 prevails at Daytona, he will lock up a playoff spot. If there is a repeat winner, Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. will secure the final two spots based on points.
Here’s the top 30 drivers entering Daytona (drivers in bold are locked in):
- Chase Elliott, 4 wins
- Kyle Larson, 2 wins
- Ross Chastain, 2 wins
- Joey Logano, 2 wins
- William Byron, 2 wins
- Kevin Harvick, 2 wins
- Denny Hamlin, 2 wins
- Tyler Reddick, 2 wins
- Christopher Bell, 1 win
- Chase Briscoe, 1 win
- Kyle Busch, 1 win
- Daniel Suarez, 1 win
- Austin Cindric, 1 win
- Alex Bowman, 1 win
- Ryan Blaney, 779 points
- Martin Truex Jr., 754 points
—
- Erik Jones, 567 points
- Aric Almirola, 560 points
- Austin Dillon, 524 points
- Bubba Wallace, 519 points
- Chris Buescher, 512 points
- Justin Haley, 480 points
- Michael McDowell, 435 points
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 432 points
- Cole Custer, 431 points
- Brad Keselowski, 411 points
- Harrison Burton, 395 points
- Ty Dillon, 377 points
- Todd Gilliland, 374 points
- Kurt Busch, 1 win, won’t race due to injury
Which active drivers have won at Daytona?
Fifteen drivers racing on Saturday have won a Cup race at Daytona:
- Denny Hamlin, 3 (2016, 2019, 2020)
- Kevin Harvick, 2 (2007, 2010)
- Kyle Busch (2008)
- David Ragan (2011)
- Aric Almirola (2014)
- Joey Logano (2015)
- Brad Keselowski (2016)
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2017)
- Austin Dillon (2018)
- Erik Jones (2018)
- Justin Haley (2019)
- William Byron (2020)
- Michael McDowell (2021)
- Ryan Blaney (2021)
- Austin Cindric (2022)
NASCAR Daytona betting odds, favorites, predictions
Picking a winner at Daytona is nearly impossible, as you can tell from the last section. There has been a new Daytona winner every year since 2014, and we already got one new winner with Cindric in February.
Still, it’s worth looking at driver averages to see who is best at avoiding crashes and finishing cleanly. Cindric (8.0 average finish in two starts) and Haley (10.8 average finish in four starts) are the best on paper, albeit in a limited sample size.
Among drivers with more experience, Wallace (12.5 average finish in 10 starts), Austin Dillon (15.4 average finish in 18 starts), Hamlin (16.5 average finish in 33 starts) and Harvick (17.5 average finish in 42 starts) could be contenders.
The odds properly reflect just how chaotic Daytona usually is, with no driver facing odds better than +1100. Before practice and qualifying, here are some of the odds to win at Daytona, courtesy of our partner, PointsBet:
- Chase Elliott, +1100
- Ryan Blaney, +1200
- Denny Hamlin, +1200
- Bubba Wallace, +1300
- Joey Logano, +1400
- Kyle Larson, +1400
- William Byron, +1400
- Ross Chastain, +1500
- Austin Cindric, +1800
- Kyle Busch, +1800
- Martin Truex Jr., +2000
- Tyler Reddick, +2000
- Kevin Harvick, +2500
- Brad Keselowski, +2500
- Alex Bowman +2500
- Daniel Suarez +2500
- Christopher Bell +2500
Editor's note: All odds are provided by our partner, PointsBet. PointsBet is our Official Sports Betting Partner and we may receive compensation if you place a bet on PointsBet for the first time after clicking our links.
