The IndyCar series moves to Road America, in Plymouth, Wisconsin, this week, for the Rev Group Grand Prix. This will be the first IndyCar event since the resumption of the sport that will feature fans. Officials plan to have all ticket purchases in advance (to avoid long lines at ticket counters) and to have all fans screened for temperatures before coming in the gate. Scott Dixon comes in as the leader in the 2020 IndyCar Series Standings, with 104 points and two wins. He has a 29-point lead on the current runner-up, Simon Pagenaud. We have the IndyCar betting odds for the drivers in this week’s race, so take a look at the numbers and our suggestions before you lock in wagers for this race.
NTT IndyCar: Rev Group Grand Prix
- Driver / Odds to Win / Odds for Top 3
- Scott Dixon /+225 / -200
- Will Power /+500 / +115
- Josef Newgarden / +600 / +135
- Simon Pagenaud /+650 / +145
- Felix Rosenqvist / +800 / +200
- Alexander Rossi / +800 / +200
- Colton Herta / +1100 / +275
- Graham Rahal / +1500 / +350
- Ryan Hunter-Reay / +2200 / +650
- Jack Harvey / +2800 / +700
- Takuma Sato / +2800 / +700
- Santino Ferrucci / +3300 / +800
- Patricio O’Ward / +5000 / +1200
The course is a 4.048-mile road track that features hills and valleys that bring twists. At times, the track is narrow to the point where drivers come into contact with one another, particularly going into Turn One at later points in the race.
One point of interest for this week is that NTT IndyCar has made a couple of rule adjustments for the races in Wisconsin. In the first two races, the drivers faced extremely high temperatures in the cockpit behind the aeroscreen. In response, IndyCar is allowing drivers to move their 1 ½-liter water bladders into the cockpit and shorten the hoses. Usually, they sit on the radiator inlet cooling duct or on the undertray. The problem is that elevated ambient temperatures, along with radiator heatsink, can push the temperatures of the liquids inside over 100 degrees.
The other rule change in response to high cockpit temperatures is to allow the pit crew members in charge of aeroscreen tear-offs hand the driver water to drink, from a bottle from outside the car. That will ensure drivers have more access to cold fluids — and will give drivers more hydration volume overall, so that they don’t empty their water in the cockpit. That was a problem that also affected the first two races.
The rule changes don’t do anything to address the steam temperatures inside the cockpit; those are just a part of racing in the middle of the summer. For this weekend, the forecast is just into the 80s instead of the higher temperatures that prevailed in Texas and Indianapolis. However, given that the cars have no power steering and face maximum downforce, drivers go through a considerable amount of exertion.
Scott Dixon has dominated each of the first two races in the season. He won at Texas Motor Speedway’s oval as well as the road course in Indianapolis. That gives him 104 points overall, and his car’s manufacturer (Honda) also leads with 182 points, 40 ahead of Chevrolet. He’s the heavy favorite for a reason.
Alexander Rossi comes in as the defending champion. In 2019, he led 54 of the 55 laps in the race to win by 28.43 seconds over Will Power of Team Penske. That was part of a terrific run by Rossi in early 2019, when he either placed first or second in five of the first seven races of the season.
