We are nearly one month past the halfway point between the 2025 and 2026 Indy 500s. During only four more months between now and the scheduled race date for the 110th running of the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" will the answer to that famous IndyCar fan-favorite question, "Is It May Yet?", be "no".
DraftKings Sportsbook has responded accordingly, publishing way-too-early odds to win May's 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval this past week.
Two drivers are listed as co-favorites to win the 2026 Indy 500, and neither one of them is Team Penske's Josef Newgarden, winner of the race in 2023 and 2024.
The race's first back-to-back winner in more than two decades started 32nd in the 33-car field in 2025 after being penalized over Team Penske's attenuator scandal, and he made his way into the top five before a late fuel pump issue knocked him out of the race and ended his three-peat bid.
Josef Newgarden not favored to win 2026 Indy 500
Newgarden is listed third at +600 to win the race in 2026, just behind Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou and Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward at +550.
Entering 2025, Palou and O'Ward were seen as the two drivers most likely to get their first Indy 500 wins, and Palou delivered. O'Ward, a two-time runner-up who was passed by Newgarden on the final lap in 2024, finished third this past May.
Palou became the first driver to win the Indy 500 and the championship in the same season since Dario Franchitti in 2010, and he became the first driver to do so without being lower than first in the championship standings at any point in the season since Johnny Rutherford in 1980. Nobody not named Palou has led IndyCar's standings since Saturday, June 22, 2024.
In addition to this fourth NTT IndyCar Series championship, the 28-year-old Spaniard also won the series' oval championship for the first time, holding off two-time oval champion O'Ward to compete a rare sweep of the series championship, oval championship, and the road/street course championship.
O'Ward's other Indy 500 runner-up finish came in 2022, when he was unable to get around Marcus Ericsson on the final lap. He crashed out battling for second with Ericsson in 2023.
Palou has not finished lower than ninth in the race since his crash as a rookie in 2020 with Dale Coyne Racing.
He finished runner-up behind four-time winner Helio Castroneves in his first Indy 500 start with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2021 and added finishes of ninth, fourth, and fifth in 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively. His 2022 and 2023 results came after mid-race pit road issues mired him back in 30th.
Aside from the obvious top three, the rest of the Indy 500 odds list is quite interesting.
Listed fourth is Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon, the all-time Indy 500 laps led leader who still somehow hasn't won the race since 2008. He is listed at +850.
Then there is a four-way tie for fifth at +1200, and it includes Takuma Sato, whose Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing ride has not yet actually been formally announced.
It also includes David Malukas, who has moved to Team Penske to replace the Andretti Global-bound Will Power (+1600) after finishing second behind Palou with A.J. Foyt Enterprises in 2025, despite missing the 2024 race due to injury.
Also listed +1200 are Ericsson, who initially finished second this year before his Andretti Global entry was disqualified, and Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin, the 2024 polesitter who infamously didn't even make it to the green flag in 2025 after crashing on the pace lap.
Full Indy 500 odds can be found here and are always subject to change.
Fox is set to provide live coverage of the 110th running of the Indy 500 from Indianapolis Motor Speedway starting at 11:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 24, 2026.