Scott Dixon is the early PointsBet Bommarito Automotive Group 500 favorite at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway for the August 21 race on the 1.25-mile track (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN).
Dixon has one previous win in 2021, which came in the first race of the Texas Motor Speedway doubleheader this May. He is listed at +625. Dixon finished fourth in the second race at Texas, but in the only other oval course event this season, he finished 17th in the Indy 500.
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 $6.25. For bettors more comfortable with fractional odds, a bet of +300 is the same as 3/1.
Pato O’Ward is ranked second with odds of +650. O’Ward won Race 2 at Texas, the first of his IndyCar career, and in three starts on ovals this season he is the only driver to have swept the top five. He was fourth in the Indy 500. O’Ward scored his second win in the second race at Belle Isle, but since then he has just one top-five in four starts on road courses.
Ranked third is Josef Newgarden with a line of +725. In 12 races this season, Newgarden has nine top-10 finishes. Five of these, including a victory at Mid-Ohio, were in the top five. Newgarden’s best oval finish so far in 2021 was a second to O’Ward in Texas 2. Newgarden won Race 2 of the Gateway doubleheader last year and has another win on this track in 2017.
Colton Herta ranks fourth at +800. He has only one top-15 finish in three oval races this year, but made the most of it with a fifth in the second Texas race. That has been the tenor of his season. In 12 IndyCar starts, Herta has five top-fives and no other top-10s.
Rounding out the top five is last week’s winner Will Power. His victory on the IMS road course was his fifth top-10 of 2021 and his second podium finish in the last four races. His other two starts in the last four events ended outside the top 10 with a 25th at Mid-Ohio and a 14th at on the Streets of Nashville. Power has not yet cracked the top 10 on an oval this season with a best of 14th in Texas 1.
No other driver has better than 10/1 odds.
A dark horse of note is Takuma Sato, listed at +2200. Sato won the 2019 Gateway race and was ninth earlier this season in Texas 1. Sato’s long odds for the outright win drag those for a top-three to +650.
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