IndyCar championship favorite is no surprise, but who is No. 2?

IndyCar is subjectively the most competitive racing series in the world, yet three of the four most recent championships, including two in a row, have been won by the same driver.

Alex Palou has won 75% of the championships that have been contested since he left Dale Coyne Racing for Chip Ganassi Racing ahead of the 2021 season, a move that was seen as somewhat of a surprise at the time.

Three titles and 11 race wins later, Palou is set to enter the 2025 season as a two-time reigning champion. No driver had won two titles in a row since Dario Franchitti, who also drove the No. 10 Honda for Chip Ganassi's team, won three in a row from 2009 to 2011.

With a month and a half to go until the 2025 season is scheduled to get underway on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, DraftKings Sportsbook published the opening odds for the IndyCar championship.

Alex Palou listed as favorite to three-peat

Palou is unsurprisingly listed as the favorite to win the title at +230. Despite only winning twice in 2024, compared to his five-win campaign from 2023 in which he became the first driver to clinch the title before the season finale since 2005, he still won the title relatively comfortably.

Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin is listed as the second favorite at +400. Had it not been for Penske's push-to-pass scandal in St. Petersburg to start the 2024 season, McLaughlin and Palou would have finished the season tied on points, and the tiebreaker would have gone to McLaughlin since he won three races. Instead, he finished in third place in the standings, which was still good enough to be Chevrolet's top driver for the second year in a row.

Teammate Josef Newgarden, a two-time series champion and the two-time reigning winner of the Indy 500 (for which he is again the betting favorite), is listed as the third favorite at +500 after what was, aside from his Indy 500 win, his worst season at Team Penske last year.

2024 runner-up Colton Herta of Andretti Global is listed at +800, tied with Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward. Team Penske's Will Power, the only driver not named Palou to win a championship since 2021, is listed at +1000, tied with six-time champion Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing.

Full IndyCar championship odds can be found here.

The 2025 IndyCar season is scheduled to get underway on Sunday, March 2 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Fox is set to provide live coverage from the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET.