The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season kicks off at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday with the 67th running of the Daytona 500. William Byron will try to become the first back-to-back winner since Denny Hamlin, who captured his second and third checkered flags in the race in 2019 and 2020. Reigning Cup Series champion Joey Logano is seeking his second win in "The Great American Race," while four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves and three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen make their debuts in one of NASCAR's crown jewels. Chase Briscoe is on the pole.

Denny Hamlin (+1200), Kyle Busch (+1200), Ryan Blaney (+1200), and Joey Logano (+1400) are the favorites in the 2025 Daytona 500 odds. Sunday's race is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Before making any NASCAR at Daytona picks, be sure to see what CBS Sports NASCAR writer Steven Taranto has to say.

Taranto, who moonlights as a sim racer and has 20 career wins in iRacing, is the lead NASCAR writer for CBSSports.com, and he chronicles stock car racing with the same thoroughness and passion that he's had since becoming a full-time race fan in 2001. He has an annual NASCAR media credential and also publishes a popular weekly NASCAR predictions column, famously calling Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez's breakthrough wins in 2022. Taranto was red-hot for SportsLine in 2024 as he nailed 17 winners, including 16-1 longshot William Byron at the Daytona 500 and 14-1 longshot Chase Elliott at Texas. Anybody following his NASCAR picks has seen HUGE returns!

For the 2025 Daytona 500, Taranto is high on fourth-year Cup driver Todd Gilliland, even though he's a longshot at 20-1. Another curveball: He's fading Michael McDowell (30-1), even though his first career Cup Series win came in "The Great American Race" in 2021, followed by a seventh-place finish in 2022. "McDowell changed teams from Front Row to Spire Motorsports this offseason, and while he brought crew chief Travis Peterson with him to the No. 71 Chevrolet, there's a major variable that keeps me from being confident that his superspeedway performance simply will carry over to his new team," Taranto told SportsLine.

Taranto also locked in four more Daytona 500 best bets and is high on a MAJOR dark horse who is going off at more than 70-1! You ABSOLUTELY NEED to see his picks before locking in any NASCAR picks of your own.

So who wins the 2025 Daytona 500? And which MASSIVE longshot do you need to target NOW? ...  Join SportsLine right now to see the 2025 NASCAR at Daytona best bets, all from the expert who nailed a colossal 17 race winners last year!