Scott Dixon is PointsBet favorite for 106th Indy 500; Jimmie Johnson a solid dark horse

After posting top-five speeds in every practice session and setting a pole record, Scott Dixon is the PointsBet Sportsbook favorite for the 106th Indy 500 (Sunday, 12:30 p.m. ET on NBC and streaming on Peacock, the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com).

Dixon was also favored in the first 2022 IndyCar oval race this March, but failed to lead a lap and finished fifth in the final rundown. In that race, Dixon boasted a line of +525; as of Tuesday evening, Dixon’s line for the Indy 500 is +540 and he has bounced around some this week. Before earning the pole, his line was as high as +775 and typically line moves this drastic are because of a combination of Smart Money going to the favorite plus a driver’s on-track performance.

One way to view American Odds is to move the decimal point two positions to the left. That will let a bettor know what they will make on a $1 bet, so the return on investment this week for Dixon is $5.40. For bettors more comfortable with fractional odds, a bet of +300 is the same as 3/1.

Dixon’s Chip Ganassi teammate Alex Palou sits on the middle of the front row and is ranked second at PointsBet with a line of +725. Ganassi and Team Penske dominated the Xpel 375 at Texas by taking the top seven positions on that oval. Palou was seventh. Last year, he finished runner-up to Helio Castroneves in the Indy 500.

Ranked third this week is Pato O’Ward with a line of +900. In two previous Indy 500 starts, O’Ward finished sixth in 2020 and was fourth last year. O’Ward swept the top five on ovals last year, including a win at Texas. This year, he was only 15th on that track.

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