Barber Motorsports Park is the site of the fourth event on the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series slate – the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Josef Newgarden has won three races in a row, including a victory at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, moving to 118 points in the drivers’ standings and moving ahead of Scott McLaughlin by five points. McLaughlin’s disappointing finish in Long Beach leaves him five points out of first. Check out the IndyCar betting odds for each driver to win this weekend, along with wager card suggestions.
NTT IndyCar: Genesys 300 Preview
| Driver | Odds |
|---|---|
| Colton Herta, Josef Newgarden | +450 |
| Alex Palou | +700 |
| Scott Dixon, Patricio O’Ward | +800 |
| Romain Grosjean, Will Power | +850 |
| Scott McLaughlin | +1000 |
| Alexander Rossi | +1600 |
| Simon Pagenaud, Graham Rahal, Felix Rosenqvist | +2500 |
| Marcus Ericsson, Rinus VeeKay | +2800 |
| Helio Castroneves | +5000 |
| Jack Harvey, Kyle Kirkwood, Takuma Sato | +6600 |
| David Malukas | +8000 |
| Devlin DeFrancesco, Callum Ilott, Christian Lundgaard | +10000 |
| Conor Daly | +20000 |
| Dalton Kellett | +50000 |
| Jimmie Johnson | +75000 |
| Tatiana Calderon | +100000 |
Barber Motorsports Park has a reputation for running very physically and allowing high speeds. In 2021, Alex Palou picked up his first career win here. Patricio O’Ward started in an early lead, but a horrendous crash ended the day for Newgarden, Colton Herta, Ryan Hunter-Reay and other drivers as well. During Lap 10, another caution emerged for Jimmie Johnson after he spun out at Turn 13.
After that, the race opened up all the way to the finish without another caution, as O’Ward led the field into green on Lap 13. He pitted on Lap 18 to change from his alternate red tires to the primary black tires, and Alexander Rossi, then in second, came on to cover O’Ward in the event of another caution. Palou took the lead and was able to get the most out of his tires to make the two-stop strategy pay off. He maintained control of the race through the second cycle through the pits and then fended off a challenge from Will Power, who rode a push to pass while Palou dealt with some lap traffic, but Palou kept his head. Power finished second, and Scott Dixon took third.
Team Penske has not lost this season, but while Newgarden and McLaughlin are contenders, Power is an intriguing play. He has cracked the top five in each race so far in 2022, getting off to his best start to a season since 2014. Team Penske has six wins in ten races at Barber, with Power winning two of them. Last year, he came in second here, and so he could well be due to snatch that first victory of 2022.
At the start of April, 13 cars came to Barber to test, and Andretti Autosport was the top team in both of those sessions. Rossi and Colton Herta led the morning run, and Romain Grosjean led Herta in the afternoon. Herta crashed at Long Beach and would love to get some redemption, while Grosjean was right there at the end as well, just feet away from his first win in NTT IndyCar after coming over from Formula 1. So if there is a team that will beat Team Penske, it could be Andretti Autosport.
Several of the rookies have some experience at Barber that makes them interesting picks. Callum Ilott, Christian Lundgaard, David Malukas and Kyle Kirkwood have all tested here, but none of them have ever gone through a complete full race weekend at Barber. The only driver making a debut at Barber is Tatiana Calderon.
Don’t miss the action this weekend, with qualifying set for 1:00 pm Eastern time on Saturday, April 30, and the race itself set for the same time on Sunday, May 1.
IndyCar Betting Odds
Love betting on the IndyCar races? | Xbet Sportsbook offers up to date IndyCar races
