Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou and Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward were listed as co-favorites to win the 110th running of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when DraftKings Sportsbook first published the odds over the offseason.
As the start of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season neared, however, O'Ward became the outright favorite, and Palou dropped into a second place tie with Team Penske's Josef Newgarden.
With nine career IndyCar victories, O'Ward is the winningest active full-time driver without an Indy 500 victory. He owns two career runner-up finishes, one in 2022 and another in 2024.
Palou is aiming to become just the third driver to win the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" in back-to-back years this century, after Newgarden became the first to do it since 2001 and 2002 back in 2023 and 2024.
After Palou opened up the 2026 season with another dominant victory on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, which effectively extended his stay atop the championship standings to 28 straight races going back to June 2024, he is the new betting favorite to win the Indy 500.
Alex Palou favorited to win the 2026 Indy 500
Palou is now listed at +450, while O'Ward and Newgarden are tied for second at +600. Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin is fourth at +900, and teammate David Malukas and Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon are tied for fifth at +1000.
Full Indy 500 odds can be found here and are always subject to change.
Palou's Indy 500 victory a year ago was his 16th, meaning he was the winningest active driver without one at the time, and it was also his first oval victory. He added another oval victory at Iowa Speedway later in the year, and he secured the series' oval championship over O'Ward in the season finale at Nashville Superspeedway.
He was also on course to win at the Milwaukee Mile before a light shower brought out a caution, during which Ed Carpenter Racing's Christian Rasmussen came into the pits for new tires before ultimately running down Palou in the closing laps to take his first career victory.
The first oval race on the 2026 schedule is not the Indy 500 like it was in 2024 and 2025. Phoenix Raceway, which hasn't hosted a race since 2018, is set to host the Good Ranchers 250 this Saturday, March 7, with live coverage set to be provided by Fox beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and catch all of the action!