Josef Newgarden is the early PointsBet Grand Prix of Portland favorite at Portland International Raceway for the September 12 race on the 1.97-mile road course (3 p.m. ET, NBC).
Newgarden scored his second win of the season in the most recent race at Gateway. Despite coming close on several occasions, it took until Round 10 at Mid-Ohio for him to earn his first victory. Between those two wins, Newgarden scored a 10th at Nashville and eighth on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. He is listed this week with a line of +540.
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 Newgarden is $5.40. For bettors more comfortable with fractional odds, a bet of +300 is the same as 3/1.
The next four drivers are all closely grouped in the +600s.
Colton Herta is ranked second with odds of +625. Herta has one win this season, but it came12 races ago in Round 2 at St. Petersburg. In the 11 races since, he has been all or nothing with four top-fives versus seven results outside the top 10. His last top-10 was earned on the Indy Road course two races ago.
Scott Dixon and Pato O’Ward share the third ranking with a line of +650.
Dixon entered Indy with a perfect record of top-10 finishes that included podium finishes at Barber Motorsports Park and on the Streets of Nashville. Dixon’s streak ended with a 17th-place finish in the Big Machine Grand Prix.
O’Ward has two wins this season, one of which came on a road course. After starting 16th in the second race at Belle Isle, he capitalized on a late-race caution and wrested the victory from Newgarden with three laps remaining - the only three laps he led that day. O’Ward is the current IndyCar championship leader with a 10-point advantage over Alex Palou.
Rounding out the top five is Will Power with a line of +675. Power started the season on a high note with a second-place finish at Barber, but he would have to wait eight races before earning another top-five. He finally broke into Victory Lane at Indy and carried that momentum with him to Gateway in the most recent IndyCar event. He finished third there. Power is the most recent Portland winner, taking the checkered flag home with him in 2019.
No other driver has better than 10/1 odds.
Second in the points, Palou can be wagered at +1000. Part of the reason for his relatively long odds is that he has finished in the 20s in his last two attempts, including a 27th on the Indy road course.
Takuma Sato won the inaugural Portland race in 2018. This week, he faces long odds of +6000 to repeat.
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