After skipping 2021, Iowa Speedway is back on the schedule with another doubleheader and Josef Newgarden is the PointsBet Sportsbook favorite for Saturday’s race (4 p.m. ET on NBC). For more details on how to watch all of the activities for both events, click here.
Last week Newgarden had a narrow advantage over Patricio O’Ward. With a line of +375 for the Hy-Veedeals.com 250, he is much more heavily favored on the short oval. Newgarden won the Sunday portion of the 2020 doubleheader after finishing fifth on Saturday. He also won one of the two oval races this year at Texas Motor Speedway.
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 $2.75. For bettors more comfortable with fractional odds, a bet of +300 is the same as 3/1.
Scott Dixon and O’Ward are each listed with +625 odds this week, sharing the No. 2 spot before weekend activities begin.
Dixon enters the weekend with three consecutive Iowa top-fives, including second-place finishes in 2019 and 2020. He finished fifth in the first IndyCar oval race this year at Texas. Dixon was the favorite for both previous oval races this season, but was winless until last week on the street course around Toronto’s Exhibition Place.
O’Ward finished fourth in 2020 on Saturday, but did not fare as well on Sunday with a 12th-place finish. He makes up for that deficit with a perfect streak of top-fives on ovals in 2021 and a second-place finish in this year’s Indy 500. O’Ward won at Texas last year.
With a line of +700, Colton Herta is a close fourth. In three starts in Iowa, Herta has not fared well. His best finish of 18th came in the 2019 race on this track. In 2020, he was 19th in both races. Herta failed to crack the top 10 in either oval race of 2022 and scored only one such finish in four starts last year.
Alex Palou rounds out the top five with a line of +775. Since the beginning of the 2021 season, Palou has failed to crack the top 10 in only one of six oval starts. In the first two oval races of this season, he has not yet cracked the top five with a best finish of seventh in Texas.
A notable dark horse this week is Jimmie Johnson with a line of +4000. He scored his first top-10 finish in IndyCars at Texas and ran well in the Indy 500 before crashing near the end of the race.
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
Toronto: Josef Newgarden narrowly favored in tight field
PointsBet is our Official Sports Betting Partner, and we may receive compensation if you place a bet on PointsBet for the first time after clicking our links.