IndyCar: 5 longshot picks to win the Indy 500

Indy 500 longshots: No. 2 – Simon Pagenaud (+3000)

There is no doubt that Meyer Shank Racing haven’t had as strong of a start as they would have liked to have had to start the 2023 season, as touched on in the previous slide, but there are two key reasons to be confident.

First and foremost, their 2022 pace in the Indy 500 wasn’t quite on par with their pace from 2021, but both drivers still managed to finish in the top eight, with Simon Pagenaud finishing just one spot behind Helio Castroneves in eighth place. So any pace improvement year-over-year should bode well for a team whose drivers have five Indy 500 wins under their belts.

And secondly, it appears as though they have brought that speed — and more. They showed well in testing last month and should again be factors at the front.

While all the focus will be on Castroneves potentially winning a fourth Indy 500, fellow former Team Penske driver Pagenaud cannot be ignored.

It’s no secret that Team Penske have struggled at Indianapolis Motor Speedway since Pagenaud’s 2019 win. Yet in 2021, his final Indy 500 start with the team, he finished in third place, closer to second place Alex Palou than Palou was to Castroneves.

At +3000, Pagenaud is too good to pass up, especially given that he appears to be in need of a big result after a rough start to the year.