Josef Newgarden opened as the Toronto PointsBet favorite

It has been three years since the NTT IndyCar Series visited Exhibition Place in Toronto and the fourth-place finisher from 2019, Josef Newgarden is this week’s PointsBet Sportsbook favorite for Sunday’s race (3 p.m. ET on Peacock Premium).

Newgarden’s opening line of +420 narrowly placed him at the top of the list. He won on this track in 2015 and 2017, but has not stood on the podium since. Newgarden has three wins already this season, on the road courses of Long Beach and Elkhart Lake as well as the Texas Motor Speedway oval.

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 $4.20. For bettors more comfortable with fractional odds, a bet of +300 is the same as 3/1.

Newgarden opened with only a slight advantage over the field led by Patricio O’Ward, who came in at +450. Running only a part time schedule in 2018 and 2019, this is O’Ward’s first opportunity to race in the senior series in Toronto, but he does have laps around the track and a win in the Indy Lights division in 2018.

Alex Palou, who enters the race surrounded by questions of whether he will race for Chip Ganassi or McLaren in 2023, opened at +460. Last year’s champion is committed to putting those distractions behind him and insists he and the team can still contend for the championship.

While those three drivers held the advantage, Colton Herta also has a modest line of +650 this week. Herta finished seventh in his only previous Toronto try, but he overcame a starting position of 16th in route to that top-10.

Will Power rounds out the top five this week with a line of +750. Power has erratic results on this track with top-fives in his first two starts in 2009/2010, results of 15th or worse in his next four, a top-10 in 2014, followed by three consecutive top-fives and three results of 18th or worse in his last three attempts. Power won the 2016 edition of this race.

Last week’s winner at Mid-Ohio, Scott McLaughlin ranks sixth with a line of +900.

Previous Betting Lines

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
Road America: Alex Palou is slightly favored
Mid-Ohio: Josef Newgarden tops the list

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Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

Josef Newgarden is PointsBet favorite for Toronto in a closely ranked field

Hunter Lawrence defends Haiden Deegan after controversial block pass at Detroit

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