Indianapolis 500 Betting Odds Preview

Get the milk on ice – the IndyCar Series returns to Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend for the 105th Indianapolis 500.

This year’s Indy 500 field includes eight former race winners and one of them is the favorite to win again this year at Bovada Sportsbook. Leading the Indianapolis 500 odds at Bovada is Scott Dixon at +550. Dixon, who will start from the pole this year, previously won the Indy 500 in 2008. He also started on the pole that year.

Pole sitter Dixon favored to win second Indy 500

Following Dixon on the odds list are Alex Palou at +700, and Pato O’Ward and Rinus VeeKay, both at +1100. All three are looking for their first Indy 500 win.

Palou finished second at Indianapolis last year in what was only his second appearance in the race. He has also posted two second-place finishes in the first five races this season, at St. Petersburg and Alabama.

O’Ward has posted back-to-back top-10 finishes at Indianapolis, finishing fourth last year and sixth in 2020. He has one win already this season, at Alabama.

VeeKay has three top-10 finishes this season, including finishing third at Alabama. This will be his third run in the Indianapolis 500 and his best finish came last year when he placed eighth.

Defending champ’s odds reflect sluggish results

Last year’s Indy 500 winner was Helio Castroneves. That was his fourth career Indy 500 win, which ties him with A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser for the most by one driver. His other three wins came in 2001, 2002 and 2009. Castroneves has not had a great season so far with only one top-10 finish, which is probably why he is a +2800 underdog to win the Indy 500 again this weekend.

Other former winners in this weekend’s field are two-time winners Takuma Sato (+1500) and Juan Pablo Montoya (+5000), Will Power (+2600), Tony Kanaan (+2000), Alexander Rossi (+2500) and Simon Pagenaud (+2500).

Newgarden, Johnson present value for bettors

Bettors looking for value this weekend might want to take a look at Josef Newgarden and Jimmie Johnson.

Newgarden, a two-time IndyCar Series champion, has won two races already this season and is getting +1200 odds at Bovada this weekend. In 10 career starts in the Indy 500, Newgarden has three top-five finishes.

Johnson is a familiar name to NASCAR fans as a seven-time Cup Series champion. This is his first year driving a full IndyCar Series schedule and so far in five races his best result is a sixth in Texas. Johnson has experience racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in NASCAR, where he won four times in his Cup Series career.