IndyCar: 5 longshot picks to win the Indy 500

Practice for the 107th running of the Indy 500 begins this week. Which IndyCar drivers are being overlooked when it comes to the odds to win the race?

Following Saturday afternoon’s GMR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, the next race on the IndyCar schedule is the 107th running of the Indy 500 at the track’s oval layout.

There are 34 drivers on the entry list, though only 33 can qualify to compete in the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Speedway, Indiana race track.

Several familiar drivers find themselves as the favorites, and there are a lot of drivers listed with long odds who have a great chance to contend for good results. For instance, A.J. Foyt Enterprises’ Santino Ferrucci is listed at +8000, despite having finished in the top 10 in all four of his Indy 500 starts.

But which of those drivers can actually compete for the win? Here are five longshots who can take the checkered flag.

All odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook. Odds and availability subject to change. Sign up with DraftKings to bet now and take advantage of their current special promotion!

Indy 500 longshots: No. 1 – Helio Castroneves (+2500)

When Helio Castroneves won the 2021 Indy 500 in what was his first ever start behind the wheel of the No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda, his odds to do so were +2800.

Now the fourth of four four-time winners of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” has another chance to become the race’s only five-time winner, and his odds find themselves in familiar territory at +2500 — somehow.

Meyer Shank Racing haven’t had the start to the 2023 season they would have liked, and they weren’t as strong at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last year as they were in 2021. But Castroneves still finished in seventh place in last year’s Indy 500, and he finished in 10th in the 2023 season’s first oval race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Most importantly, he was also quick in April testing for the Indy 500. Is the “Drive for Five” on?