For the entirety of Speedweeks, I've been able to fight the good fight. Well, until now …
While my Daytona 500 betting card is ready to roll, I hadn't made any NASCAR picks for the XFINITY Series United Rentals 300, but the weather has baited me too long.
Originally scheduled to run on Saturday afternoon, rain in Daytona forced NASCAR to push the United Rentals 300 until this morning, however, more wet weather resulted in a second postponement until Monday at 9 p.m. ET.
More than 48 hours of extra time proved insurmountable for me as a NASCAR bettor.
Now, I'm not loading up on the XFINITY Series race by any means, but I did bite on two longshot NASCAR picks for tonight's race.
Let's party.
NASCAR at Daytona Odds, Picks
*NASCAR odds as of Monday morning
Hailie Deegan (+1800) for Top Ford — Caesars
There are just six Fords in tonight's XFINITY Series race and Cole Custer is priced at -105 to be the top finisher of the group.
That's way too short for a race this random.
When any sports betting market is too top heavy it results in value further down the board, and that's exactly where I'm going.
Despite just five other Fords to beat, Hailie Deegan is priced at the very enticing line of +1800 to do just that.
While nobody is going to confuse Deegan with a top superspeedway racer, she has been sneaky good in the Truck Series at Talladega over the past two years.
With finishes of sixth and eighth, Deegan has certainly improved at this style of racing, enough so to warrant taking a crack at her 18-1 odds to finish as the top Ford tonight.
Ryan Sieg (+6000) to Win — bet365
This is such a homer bet.
I'm not necessarily a huge Ryan Sieg fan, but I do find myself betting on him at superspeedway races often and have done so again today.
Over the past eight XFINITY Series races at Daytona and Talladega, combined, Sieg has posted the 12th-best driver rating, the 10th-best average running position and the fourth-best average finish while leading the eighth-most laps en route to five top-1o finishes, tied for the most of any driver.
The lack of Fords, which is the reason I like Deegan so much in the bet above, does hurt Sieg in terms of having other cars to work with, but that's certainly baked into this price.
I don't expect Sieg to go out and dominate tonight's race at Daytona, but he has shown the ability to hang around the front of the field and be there at the end if chaos ensues, which is all we can ask for at the long-shot price of 60-1.
