Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Just about every team sport on the planet concludes its season with its biggest event. The 2020 NFL season, for example, just concluded Sunday with Super Bowl 55. NASCAR handles things differently as it stages its biggest event to kick off the new season and that’s the Daytona 500. The 63rd running of the Great American Race is Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET from Daytona International Speedway on the east coast of Florida. There will be limited fans (around 30,000) allowed. It’s 200 laps around the 2.5-mile track.

One big storyline at this year’s race is who isn’t in it: Seven-time points champion Jimmie Johnson, who retired as a full-time competitor after last season. He won this race twice, in 2006 and 2013.

The clear-cut favorite (if there is such a thing in a NASCAR race), is two-time defending champion Denny Hamlin at +700. The 2019 race won by Hamlin was the last at the track with restrictor plates, and last year’s race was postponed by a day due to rain. Hamlin edged out Ryan Blaney by 0.014 seconds to become the first repeat winner since Sterling Marlin in 1995.