Josef Newgarden is once more the PointsBet Sportsbook favorite for Saturday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 on World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (6 p.m. ET, USA Network). For more details on how to watch, click here.
Newgarden is the defending winner of this race and scored another victory in the second half of a doubleheader at Gateway in 2020. He has another win on the minimally-banked oval from 2017 and top-10s in the next two seasons. Those results contribute to a moderate line of +245 before on track activities get underway this weekend. Newgarden won the first half of the Iowa doubleheader this year before crashing heavily in the second race.
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 $2.45. For bettors more comfortable with fractional odds, a bet of +300 is the same as 3/1.
With nearly twice the line, Pato O’Ward is ranked second at +450 and has a record that easily rivals Newgarden. Stretching back to the first race of Gateway’s 2020 doubleheader, he’s earned top-fives in all but one oval race in the IndyCar series. Two of these were victories, at Texas Motor Speedway last year and Iowa Speedway in the most recent oval race. O’Ward finished second in the first half of that doubleheader, but those are his only top-10s in the last seven races.
Will Power is slightly higher than O’Ward at +500. His season has been all-or-nothing with 10 top-fives coming in the first 14 races of 2022 and the remainder landing outside the top 10. Only one of these disappointing results came on an oval, however, when he finished 15th in the Indy 500.
Colton Herta opened at +725 midweek - a surprising line given that he has not scored a top-10 on an oval in his last six starts. His best effort of 2022 netted 12th-place finishes at Texas and Iowa. The saving grace for Herta is that he is coming off his fifth top-five of the season after finishing fifth on the streets of Nashville.
At +900 Scott McLaughlin rounds out the top five and is the last driver below 10/1. He has earned top-fives in his last three attempts, which includes a third-place finish in the second half of the Iowa doubleheader.
Jimmie Johnson (+3000) is a notable dark horse on ovals. He scored his first IndyCar top-10 this spring at Texas, ran well in the Indy 500 before crashing seven laps from the finish and earned his first career top-five at Iowa. If he can pull off the win this weekend, it will be worth 30/1.
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
Indy GMR Grand Prix: Herta continue to be road racing favorite
Indy 500: Dixon favored; Jimmie Johnson solid dark horse
Road America: Alex Palou is slightly favored
Mid-Ohio: Josef Newgarden tops the list
Toronto: Newgarden narrowly favored in tight field
Iowa: Newgarden still favored as he stretches betting line lead
Indy Gallagher Grand Prix: Pato O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist lead tight field
Streets of Nashville: Newgarden narrowly edges Palou
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