Josef Newgarden is the PointsBet favorite at Laguna Seca

Josef Newgarden is the PointsBet Sportsbook favorite to win the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey (3 p.m. ET on NBC). For more details on how to watch, click here.

If Newgarden can cover the +375 odds and win, it will be his first top-five on the track. In two previous starts at Laguna Seca, he finished eighth in 2019 and seventh in 2021. A race was not run on this track in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Newgarden has won three of the last 10 IndyCar races and finished in the top five on two other occasions.

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 $3.75, down slightly from last week’s +380. For bettors more comfortable with fractional odds, a bet of +300 is the same as 3/1.

Ranked second is Scott McLaughlin, winner of last week’s race in Portland. McLaughlin opened this week with odds of +420 on the strength of five consecutive top-fives. He finished 12th in last year’s edition of this race.

In third is Will Power with a line of +460. Power has only one win this season, which came on the temporary course at Belle Isle, but he has stayed in the points’ chase all season with 11 top-fives in 16 races. He was second to McLaughlin last week in Portland and also in his inaugural attempt at Laguna Seca in 2019.

The winner of both previous Laguna Seca IndyCar races, Colton Herta is ranked only fourth with a line of +600. Herta has lost some of his early season momentum and earned just one top-five in his last six attempts. That came on the Streets of Nashville as recently as three weeks ago, however, and he nearly scored another at Portland by finishing sixth.

Rounding out the top five this week is Patricio O’Ward with a line of +750. He enters the weekend with back-to-back top-fives at Gateway and Portland. Last year, he was fifth in the Laguna Seca race.

Another driver to watch this week is last year’s second-place finisher at Laguna Seca. Alex Palou is the only other driver under 10/1 this week with a line of +850.

Last year’s third-place finisher in this race, Romain Grosjean is listed at +2500.

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
Gateway: Newgarden remains the favored son
Portland: Newgarden holds slim margin over O’Ward

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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports

Josef Newgarden favored by PointsBet at Laguna Seca, Colton Herta ranked fourth

Winner Josef Newgarden earns $3.666 million from a record Indy 500 purse of $17 million

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