After a massive pileup with 23 laps to go eliminated virtually the entire lead pack in last Sunday's Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, multiple drivers who do not usually run at the front capitalized and scored finishes that were monumental for both them and their small race teams.
Those finishes also ended up making one bettor very, very rich.
With a free bet of $13.49 on FanDuel Sportsbook, a bettor took his chances with a longshot four-leg parlay of top 10 finishes for:
- Cody War
- B.J. McLeod
- Landon Cassill
- David Ragan
On the surface, the parlay was an enormously farfetched one at +7408700 odds. Ware had never scored a finish better than 17th in his entire career, McLeod had just one career top 10 finish and Cassill had not scored a top 10 in any Cup Series race since 2014.
But sure enough, all four were able to avoid the carnage that ensued before a long rain delay, and all put themselves in the race to the finish. Cassill crossed the finish line in fourth, tying his career-best set at Talladega in 2014. Ware came home a career-best sixth, and McLeod followed him with a career-best seventh. David Ragan, a former Daytona winner who continues to race on superspeedways despite semi-retirement from NASCAR, finished ninth.
The end result was a whopping $999,433 payout for the gambler.
𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐘 $𝟏 𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍 🤯🤯🤯
— FanDuel Sportsbook (@FDSportsbook) August 28, 2022
This bettor took $13 and a dream and came out with one of the biggest wins I've ever seen.
Our finance department is in shambles 😅 pic.twitter.com/XoSkJOKpat
Whatever elation that bettor felt was surely matched on pit road in Daytona, as the drivers and teams involved all reveled in their day in the sun. For instance, Rick Ware Racing saw not only Cody contend for the win on the final lap and earn his best career finish, but the finish also marked the first time in team history that both of its cars, the No. 15 and No. 51, finished in the top 10.
"Anytime you get to go race towards the front and battle with the leaders, it makes me feel like all the hard work pays off," Ware said in a story by Jayski.com. "There's definitely a lot more hard days than good days in NASCAR, but man, what a day. I'm just happy to be here."
Ware's top 10 finish meant that every single driver who has run all 26 Cup Series races has scored at least one top 10 finish this season, plus McLeod who also runs the vast majority of the races for the Live Fast Motorsports team he co-owns. Cassill has made eight starts this year for Spire Motorsports while racing full-time in the Xfinity Series, while Ragan has only run speedway races since retiring from racing full-time at the end of the 2019 season.
