The Indianapolis 500 is once again set for Memorial Day weekend, after a postponement to the autumn in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This race is considered one of the three events in the Triple Crown of Motorsport, along with the Monaco Grand Prix, which is usually run on the same day, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The first race took place in 1911, with Ray Harroun taking the checkered flag. The defending champion is Takuma Sato, and A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr and Rick Mears are tied with four career wins apiece.
Let’s take a look at some early IndyCar betting odds to win the race, along with some suggestions for your wager card.
NTT IndyCar: Early Indy 500 Odds
| Driver | Odds |
| Josef Newgarden, Scott Dixon | +700 |
| Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Alexander Rossi | +800 |
| Colton Herta | +1200 |
| Pato O’Ward, Juan Pablo Montoya | +1600 |
| Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alex Palou | +2000 |
| Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato, Marcus Ericsson, Rinus Veekay | +2500 |
| James Hinchcliffe, Ed Carpenter, Helio Castroneves, Marco Andretti, | |
| Tony Kanaan, Conor Daly | +3000 |
| Felix Rosenqvist, Santino Ferrucci | +5000 |
| Jack Harvey, Sebastien Bourdais, Scott McLaughlin | +6000 |
| Ed Jones | +10000 |
| Sage Karam, J.R. Hildebrand, Charlie Kimball | +20000 |
| Pietro Fittipaldi, Max Chilton | +30000 |
| Dalton Kellett, Simona De Silvestro, R.C. Enerson, Cody Ware | +50000 |
Santino Ferrucci is an interesting dark horse to consider. He came in seventh in 2019 and fourth a year ago, but he is still offering +5000 odds at this time. He drives for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLLR), the team of the 2020 winner (Takuma Sato) as well as Graham Rahal, who came in third. The RLLR team looked terrific in Indy 500 testing earlier in May, as Sato had the second-fastest lap on the last day of practice, with Rahal finishing with the fifth-fastest lap. Ferrucci has the same equipment as his teammates and offers more value.
Scott Dixon has emerged as one of the favorites. In the doubleheader at Texas Motor Speedway, Dixon won the first race and came in fourth in the second race. In the most recent event, though, on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Rinus VeeKay picked up his first win as an IndyCar Series driver, with the win coming in his 19th start. He held off Romain Grosjean by 4.951 seconds, with Alex Palou coming in third. VeeKay is the sixth youngest winner in IndyCar Series history, and he is the first driver ever to win in the top series as well as the Indy Lights, the Indy Pro 2000 and USF2000, the three parts of the Road to Indy ladder series. Within the first five races of 2021, three of the winners have been first-time victors in the series, including Palou and Pato O’Ward. Each of the five races has also had a different winner so far in 2021.
In the GMR Grand Prix, VeeKay led 33 laps, averaging 116.096 mph. On Lap 65, he took the lead for the rest of the race when Dixon made his last pit stop, diverging in pit strategy from the rest of the leaders. VeeKay controlled his gap ahead of Grosjean as well as traffic through the last 20 laps in a light drizzle. The track never got wet enough for rain tires to become necessary, but it made the steering tense the rest of the way.
With 10 laps to go, VeeKay led Grosjean by 9.0106 seconds, and Grosjean had the edge in tire freshness by three laps, but he was not able to cut that gap by more than half. VeeKay dropped his speed in the last few laps to conserve fuel, but Grosjean was not able to move into first. Grosjean made his first podium in open-wheel racing since 2015, when he made it with Lotus as part of the Formula 1 circuit. Grosjean is in his debut year for IndyCar after a ten-year career in Formula 1.
IndyCar Betting Odds
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