It's been a minute.
The #DadLife has been consuming my weekends of late and will once again today.
My son has baseball practice early Saturday morning, which is immediately followed by his birthday party a few hours later.
Now, if I sound like I'm complaining, I'm not because I'll have a blast, but I do want some Daytona action as well.
Because I'm slammed most Saturdays these days, I don't have the time to watch and analyze practice like I used to, so I've been passing on betting NASCAR for the most part.
However, no practice at Daytona means no practice for me to need to examine, so I'm back!
Overall, I see tonight's Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC) as a good opportunity for live betting, which I will be doing alongside my trusty glass of Irish whiskey.
With that said, there is one long-shot bet I'm locking in right now to ensure it's on my card ahead of today's #DadLife duties.
100-1 NASCAR Prediction for Daytona
*Odds as of Saturday morning
NASCAR odds at FanDuel list Joey Logano as the race favorite at +900, followed by Ryan Blaney (+1000), William Byron (+1100), Austin Cindric (+1300) and Tyler Reddick (+1600).
While Cole Custer has struggled overall over the last two seasons in the Cup Series, Daytona has been a surprisingly strong track for the Haas Factory Team driver.
Custer wrecked while racing Denny Hamlin for the lead on the final lap of the 2025 Daytona 500, relegating him to a 21st-place finish even though he was in contention to win.
In this race one year ago, Custer piloted the No. 41 Ford to a fourth-place finish before backing that up with a fifth-place run at another drafting track, Talladega Superspeedway, later in the season.
In fact, Custer has the seventh-best average finish at Daytona in the Next Gen era according to NASCAR Insights.
Not too shabby.
Custer is a long shot for a reason, but he's shown the ability to be at or near the front of the field late at these large drafting tracks enough to warrant a wager at 100-1 odds, so that's exactly what I'm doing.
NASCAR Prediction: Cole Custer (100-1) to Win — BetMGM
