The 101st running of the Indianapolis 500 is scheduled for Sunday, May 28th. Television coverage to be provided by ABC and starts around 10:00am ET, with the actual race scheduled to be underway by 11:20am ET. Qualifying for this year’s race was held on Sunday, May 21st. Those results are listed in the table below.
| Pole | Driver |
|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Dixon |
| 2 | Ed Carpenter |
| 3 | Alexander Rossi |
| 4 | Takuma Sato |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso |
| 6 | JR Hildebrand |
| 7 | Tony Kanaan |
| 8 | Marco Andretti |
| 9 | Will Power |
| 10 | Ryan Hunter-Reay |
| 11 | Ed Jones |
| 12 | Oriol Servia |
| 13 | Mikhail Aleshin |
| 14 | Graham Rahal |
| 15 | Max Chilton |
| 16 | Charlie Kimball |
| 17 | James Hinchcliffe |
| 18 | Juan Pablo Montoya |
| 19 | Helio Castroneves |
| 20 | Jay Howard |
| 21 | Sage Karam |
| 22 | Josef Newgarden |
| 23 | Simon Pagenaud |
| 24 | Carlos Munoz |
| 25 | Gabby Chaves |
| 26 | Conor Daly |
| 27 | Jack Harvey |
| 28 | Pippa Mann |
| 29 | Spencer Pigot |
| 30 | Buddy Lazier |
| 31 | Sebastian Saavedra |
| 32 | Zach Veach |
| 33 | James Davison |
Dixon won the pole position with the best qualifying time and earns a spot on our top picks to win this year. Dixon was robbed at a Taco Bell by gunpoint shortly after qualifying (yes, really), but is unharmed and still expected to race. He won the 2008 Indy 500 from the pole and finished 4th from the pole in 2015, so you can easily see he likes running from this position.
Only Hello Castroneves has won more Indy 500 championships, but Montoya has won two out of four Indy attempts, while Catroneves has three wins over 16 races and has not won since 2009. Montoya won in both 2000 and 2015 (did not finish last year). His 2015 victory was from the middle of the pack, where he starts again this year. As long as his equipment holds up, he will contend for the title.
Newgarden might be flying a bit under the radar compared to some of the names on this list, but at 10-to-1 odds or better there is great value here. He has three Indy Car wins over the last two years and had a solid showing in last year’s Indy 500, finishing third.
The latest odds show a wide-open field with the top four contenders coming in with nearly identical odds and the next three best odds not far behind. Will a long-shot win this year? I’m banking on one of the drivers near the top of this list to come in first, but there’s plenty of value down the list.
| Driver | Odds |
|---|---|
| Fernando Alonso | 7/1 |
| Scott Dixon | 7/1 |
| Simon Pagenaud | 7/1 |
| Will Power | 7/1 |
| Helio Castroneves | 9/1 |
| Juan Pablo Montoya | 9/1 |
| Josef Newgarden | 10/1 |
| James Hinchcliffe | 12/1 |
| Tony Kanaan | 13/1 |
| Ryan Hunter Reay | 15/1 |
| Marco Andretti | 17/1 |
| Sebastian Bourdais | 25/1 |
| R. Hidebrand | 26/1 |
| Alexander Rossi | 29/1 |
| Graham Rahal | 34/1 |
| Carlos Munoz | 40/1 |
| Charlie Kimball | 42/1 |
| Ed Carpenter | 49/1 |
| Takuma Sato | 51/1 |
| Jack Harvey | 52/1 |
| Mikhail Aleshin | 52/1 |
| Oriol Servia | 83/1 |
| Max Chilton | 104/1 |
| Field | 16/1 |