During the 2024 IndyCar season, seven drivers from four different teams found victory lane. All seven drivers who won at some point won more than once, but nobody won more than three races.
Among the seven race winners, series champion Alex Palou was actually tied for the fewest victories (two). So it should be no surprise that the betting odds show a different favorite for the 2025 season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg than they do for the season championship.
Chip Ganassi Racing's Palou is the favorite to three-peat and win a fourth overall championship, and FanDuel Sportsbook lists him at +210.
Team Penske's Josef Newgarden is listed third at +500, but he is the favorite to win the season opener at +400.
Newgarden was classified as the winner of last year's season opener for 45 days (enough to credit you with your winnings if you bet on him), until it was discovered that he illegally used the push-to-pass button after a restart (three times). He was subsequently disqualified, handing Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward the victory.
Even with that disqualification, however, Newgarden is a two-time St. Petersburg winner (2019 and 2020), while St. Petersburg has not been one of Palou's best tracks.
Since joining Chip Ganassi Racing in 2021, Palou's best finish at St. Pete came in 2022, when he placed second. The 2022 season is ironically the only one of his four seasons in the No. 10 Honda thus far in which he did not win the championship. He finished in sixth last year before disqualifications for Newgarden and teammate Scott McLaughlin promoted him to fourth.
Palou is listed at +1000, the fifth shortest odds in the 27-car field, to win this year's season opener. 2021 winner Colton Herta of Andretti Global is listed as Newgarden's top challenger at +600.
Full odds can be found here.
Tune in to Fox at 12:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 2 for the live broadcast of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg from the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. Begin a free trial of FuboTV if you have not already done so!