Josef Newgarden is PointsBet Mid-Ohio favorite

Last year’s winner at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Josef Newgarden is the PointsBet Sportsbook favorite for this week’s Honda Indy 200 (Sunday, 12:30 p.m. ET on NBC and streaming on Peacock, the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com).

There have been five winners in the past five races at Mid-Ohio, but Newgarden is the most recent multiple winner after taking the checkered flag in 2017 and 2021. In seven career starts on this track, he has finished outside the top 10 only once, which was a 14th-place result in 2019. His odds for Sunday’s race are +360.

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 $3.60. For bettors more comfortable with fractional odds, a bet of +300 is the same as 3/1.

The betting lines are much closer below Newgarden.

Patricio O’Ward and Alex Palou are both ranked second this week with a line of +550.

In three starts, O’Ward has not yet cracked the top five at Mid-Ohio with a best of eighth in last year’s event. He has one win on a road course this year, however, after taking Barber Motorsports Park in Round 4.

Palou is also winless, although he came close last year with a third-place finish after starting the race seventh. Palou is winless on the season with his last victory coming at Portland International Raceway last fall.

MORE: Win $25,000 with Honda IndyCar 200 Predictor

Ranked fourth is Colton Herta, barely 25 points behind O’Ward and Palou. There have been five winners in the last five races at Mid-Ohio and Herta is one of them. His win came in the first race of a doubleheader in 2020, but that is his only top-five. Herta also won on the Indy road course four rounds ago.

Alexander Rossi rounds out the top five this week with a line of +700. With a payout nearly twice that of the favorite, Rossi may be the best value this week.

Rossi has not yet won in 2022, but he has been among the top five in his last three starts this season, including a third-place finish last week at Road America. He won at Mid-Ohio in 2018 and has not been outside the top five since. In fact, in six career starts there, his worst effort landed sixth on the chart in his inaugural attempt in 2017.

Will Power won the second race of 2020’s double header, which was his ninth top-10 in the previous 10 races on this track. Power started the season with five consecutive top-fives and won at Belle Isle two rounds ago. His line this week is +900.

Scott Dixon rounds out the contenders under 10/1 with a line of +900. He won on this track in 2019.

Previous Betting Lines

Road America: Alex Palou is slightly favored
St Petersburg: Colton Herta tops the list
Texas: Scott Dixon favored
Long Beach: Herta favored for second street race
Barber: Herta still favored, but line gets longer
GMR Grand Prix: Herta continue to be road racing favorite
Indy 500: Scott Dixon favored; Jimmie Johnson solid dark horse

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”

Josef Newgarden is PointsBet favorite for Mid-Ohio; Alexander Rossi among the best dark horses

IndyCar disappointed by delay of video game but aiming to launch at start of 2024

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