Indy 500: 12 drivers with a better chance than Kyle Larson
By Asher Fair
No. 6 - Alexander Rossi, Arrow McLaren: +1100
Alexander Rossi is one of those drivers who always hangs around the front of the pack and you can never count out, but he just hasn't yet had that single breakthrough moment that everyone has been expecting year after year. Sure, he won the race in 2016 on fuel strategy, and that obviously still counts. But how close is he to getting back to duking it out for an Indy 500 win like he did with Simon Pagenaud in 2019? Year number two with his new team could be one to remember.
No. 5 - Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global: +1000
No driver is going to go to Indianapolis Motor Speedway with more motivation than Marcus Ericsson. The 2022 Indy 500 winner came closer than anybody to repeating since Helio Castroneves actually did so in 2002, only to see his hopes derailed by a restart some argue shouldn't have happened. Andretti Global haven't been as strong as Chip Ganassi Racing in the Indy 500 as of late, but their race day speed was right up there in 2023.
No. 4 - Josef Newgarden, Team Penske: +800
The fact that Josef Newgarden won the Indy 500 in what was considered a "down" month of May for Team Penske -- which had been riding an uncharacteristically "long" Indy 500 drought of three years -- speaks volumes about his oval dominance over the last few seasons. That said, he did only lead five laps, the fewest a winner had led since Dan Wheldon led only lap 200 in 2011. It has been more than two decades since the reigning race winner drank the milk, but if anybody can change that, it's Newgarden.