Scott Dixon opened as the early line favorite at PointsBet Sportsbook to win the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, May 30, 2021 (11 a.m. ET, NBC), and after winning the pole his betting line lost 220 points.
Dixon’s opening line of +600 made him a slight favorite over Josef Newgarden at +700, but after qualification the gap widened significantly.
With his fourth Indy 500 pole and a 2008 victory to his credit, Dixon’s new line is +380. If he continues to show speed in final practice, that line could move again. In addition to his ’08 win, Dixon finished second last year and has top-fives in three of his last six Indy 500s.
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 for Dixon this week is $3.80. For bettors more comfortable with fractional odds, a bet of +300 is the same as 3/1.
His starting position also impacted Newgarden. He opened as the second favorite at +700, but after qualifying 15th he fell to the sixth slot at +1600. Newgarden was the fastest Team Penske driver in time trials as the organization struggled to find a good four-lap speed.
In part because of his second-place qualification effort, Colton Herta became the second favored driver. His current odds are +725.
No other driver is listed at better than 10/1.
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Pato O’Ward opened at +750 and had 250 points added to his line after a 12th-place qualification effort. Last year he finished sixth in the race after starting 15th.
Alexander Rossi is ranked fourth with +1300 odds. Rossi had a four-race, top-10 streak going until last year when he retired on Lap 143 with crash damage.
Alex Palou rounds out the top five at +1400. Palou starts one position better in 2021 than he did last year. After starting seventh, he crashed and retired on Lap 121 in the 104th Indy 500.
Penske teammates Will Power and Simon Pagenaud experienced extreme line movements after their problems in qualification. Both drivers opened at +1000 and has +1500 added their payout to land at +2500. Pagenaud qualified 26th. Dixon starts on the inside of the last row in 32nd.
Both drivers finished outside the top 10 in last year’s edition of this race with Power 14th and Pagenaud two laps off the pace in 22nd.
The final driver on the front row also had points deducted from his line. Rinus Veekay opened at +2500 and is currently available at +1800.
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