DJ Khaled named Honorary Starter for Daytona 500

It is Daytona 500 race week officially. We will have qualifying in two days. Then the Duels on Thursday. Truck Series race on Friday, going into Saturday with ARCA and Xfinity. Finally, the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

The NASCAR season is upon us and that means 28 weeks of racing before we have another weekend without racing. While the season is long and grueling, that is what makes it so captivating. These drivers race at speeds close to 200 MPH at times, but make no mistake, it is a marathon.

Favorites for the Daytona 500

As we get into this week, let’s just have a refresher on who the favorites are for the weekend. Of course, things could change drastically in qualifying or the Duels. For now, there are a handful of favorites to pay attention to.

Ryan Blaney, the defending Cup Series champion is the odds-on favorite to win the Daytona 500. He has won at the track before, but never in the first race of the season. Will he add a Harley J. Earl to go along with his Bill France Cup?

Among the other favorites are Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, and Joey Logano. All three have won on a superspeedway.

Only Keselowski has yet to win the Daytona 500, but he has six Talladega victories. Hamlin is a three-time winner in the 500 and Logano has his own victory in the race.

Don’t sleep on drivers like Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, or even a rookie like Zane Smith. Austin Cindric won the 2022 Daytona 500 as a rookie. Zane has back-to-back Truck Series wins in the season-opener at Daytona, why not a 500 trophy to go with those?

Whoever you are picking this weekend, it’s just nice to be able to say it is race week. The Daytona 500, nothing like it.