The greatest spectacle in auto racing is the Indianapolis 500 which has been around since 1911. This event is unrivaled in professional motor sports and the tradition of this event runs very deep. Drivers run 200 laps around the 2.5-mile oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the winner is rewarded with a checkered flag, a big check, and a bottle of milk. With no clear favorites on the oddmakers books, and only Alexander Rossi at single digit odds of +850, this is a race where you can win a nice payout, as every other driver in the field is at odds of 11-1 or more.
Indycar Leaders
What has happened in the IndyCar Series this season? This is the sixth race of the year and just the second to be run on an oval/speedway track. Sebastien Bourdais opened the year with a win in St. Petersburg. Josef Newgarden won at Phoenix and then a few weeks later at Birmingham, Alabama In between, Alexander Rossi won at Long Beach. Will Power won two weeks ago in the IndyCar Grand Prix. The Indy 500 will be the sixth race of the IndyCar Series 17 race 2018 schedule.
Josef Newgarden is the current points leader with 184. Alexander Rossi is second with 176, followed by Sebastien Bourdais with 157, Scott Dixon with 148, and James Hinchcliffe with 144. Hinchcliffe did not qualify for the Indy 500, so he will fall behind at least Will Power and Graham Rahal, who each have 142 points. Robert Wickens, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Marco Andretti round out the top 10 as the only other drivers with at least 100 points in IndyCar racing this season
Previous Winners
IndyCar has moved from the ovals to more road courses, over the last several years, and while some IndyCar drivers prefer the ovals to the road course, others do not, and that can be a big factor in your handicapping for this race.
Four of the last five champions in the Indy 500 have been first-time winners. The only repeat winner is Juan Pablo Montoya, who won all the way back in 2000. Dario Franchitti is the only driver who has won recently as a repeat champion, with three wins since 2007.
Winner take all.@Hinchtown vs. @scottdixon9
The #Indy500 Pit Stop Challenge 🏆 goes to…
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📺 @NBCSN#INDYCAR // #CarbDay // #Indy500 pic.twitter.com/HloFYouD8Y— NTT IndyCar Series (@IndyCar) May 25, 2018
Favorites to Win: Alexander Rossi
The 26-year-old Alexander Rossi was a rookie in 2016 when he took down the most coveted race in IndyCar. That was a stunner that virtually came out of nowhere, as Rossi only had one more top-five finish that season. A smart fuel strategy and some incredible luck, put him in a position to win, which he did with an amazing coast to the finish, despite running out of gas on the last lap of the race. Rossi had five wins last season, including a win at Watkins Glen. This season, he’s already had four top-five finishes in five races, with a win at Long Beach on the street course circuit there. Rossi is the favorite, even though after qualifying he will be starting on the last row
Other Favorites to Win
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Josef Newgarden, Will Power, and Helio Castroneves are all +1100 for this year’s event. Hunter-Reay won in 2014, Castroneves won in 2009, 2002, and 2001. You can basically take your pick of these four. Newgarden did win the only other oval race this year so far in Phoenix, but Power led the most laps in that one. Newgarden only has two top-10 finishes in six Indy 500s, but he also hasn’t qualified all that well in most of those. He qualified second in 2016 and finished third. This year, he qualified fourth. He’ll be inside of Sebastien Bourdais and Spencer Pigot.
Ryan Hunter-Reay will start in the fifth row, so he starts behind other top challengers, like Power and Newgarden, but in a race like Indy, track position can and does change at the drop of a hat . Of the group of drivers at +1100, Newgarden seems like the best bet.
Scott Dixon, Simon Pagenaud, Sebastien Bourdais, and Ed Carpenter are all part of the +1150 group. Despite the skill level of this group of drivers, Dixon is the only one that has a win in the Indy 500 and it came back in 2008. Pagenaud had the most points in 2016, finished second in 2017, and hasn’t cracked the top-five yet this season and has never cracked it in six previous Indy 500 starts. Dixon only has one top-five finish in his last five Indy 500 starts and that includes two pole position starts. He’s still a very talented driver, but he only has one oval win in the last three years. He was fourth at Phoenix, so maybe there’s some value at +1150, at least relative to the others in this group.
Long shots to Win
As a longshot, Takuma Sato at +3300 odds was last years winner, and although he seems to have crashed out in more than his share of Indycar races in his very long racing career, he could be a big payout if he repeats last years results.
Coverage of the Indianapolis 500 will be on ABC on Sunday afternoon.
Odds as of May 23, 2 p.m. ET courtesy of BetDSI.eu Sportsbook
Alexander Rossi +850
Ryan Hunter-Reay +1100
Josef Newgarden +1100
Will Power +1100
Helio Castroneves +1100
Scott Dixon +1150
Simon Pagenaud +1150
Sebastien Bourdais +1150
Ed Carpenter +1150
Tony Kanaan +1350
Marco Andretti +1500
Sage Karam +1750
Danica Patrick +2300
Carlos Munoz +2350
Graham Rahal +2750
Takuma Sato +3300
Robert Wickens +3500
Zach Veach +3500
Ed Jones +4000
Gabby Chaves +4200
Charlie Kimball +4200
Stefan Wilson +4200
Spencer Pigot +4500
JR Hildebrand +5000
Matheus Leist +6000
Jay Howard +9000
Oriol Servia +10000
Connor Daly +18500
James Davison +20000
Kyle Kaiser +25000
Max Chilton +27500
