2017 Daytona 500 Betting Preview, Analysis: Earnhardt Jr. Leads NASCAR Odds

Chase Elliott became the youngest pole-sitter in Daytona 500 history last year as a 20-year-old, but he ended up crashing en route to a 37th-place finish.

Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. experienced a similar fate, although he is a +600 co-favorite (bet $100 to win $600) to rebound and take the checkered flag for the third time this Sunday along with Brad Keselowski at Daytona International Speedway.

Elliott, the son of two-time champion Bill Elliott, has won the pole for the second consecutive year and sits at +1200 to win his first Daytona 500 at the age of 21 behind Earnhardt, Keselowski, Joey Logano (+800), Jimmie Johnson (+1000), Kevin Harvick (+1000) and Kyle Busch (+1000) at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.

Defending champ Denny Hamlin is also listed at +1200 after last year’s unbelievable win.

All of those aforementioned drivers obviously have a lot more NASCAR experience than Elliott, with Earnhardt, Johnson, Logano, Harvick and Hamlin previously winning the race. Earnhardt and Johnson have each won it twice. Earnhardt has already qualified for the front row too and will start alongside Elliott.

Keselowski finished first in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona among four Sprint Cup Series wins overall last year. He and Busch are the only drivers with odds of +1000 or less who have never won the Daytona 500, making many believe this could finally be their year.

Last year, Hamlin edged Martin Truex Jr. (+1600) by 0.01 seconds in the closest Daytona 500 finish of all time. However, no driver has won the race in back-to-back years since Sterling Marlin in 1994 and 1995. In addition, Dale Jarrett is the last pole winner to finish first in the Daytona 500, accomplishing the feat back in 2000.

Besides Truex, who is also still gunning for his first Daytona 500 victory, Matt Kenseth could be a good sleeper pick as well at +1400. Kenseth is the only other driver in the field with two previous Daytona 500 wins (2009 and 2012), beating both Earnhardt and Johnson to that distinction.

In fact, Kenseth, Johnson and Earnhardt all earned their second wins in successive years between 2012 and 2014, respectively. They followed Trevor Bayne (2011), who remains the youngest driver ever to win the race at 20.