Alex Palou's 2025 IndyCar season was historic in more ways than one, but perhaps one of the more underrated aspects of his dominance is the fact that he pulled off what no driver had pulled off since Johnny Rutherford in 1980.
You have to go back to Saturday, June 22, 2024, to find the most recent day that ended with somebody other than Palou leading the IndyCar championship standings.
The Spaniard led the standings for the entire season in 2025, winning five of the first six races, to become the first to do so since Scott Dixon won his sixth title in 2020. He also became the first driver to win the Indy 500 and the championship in the same year since Dario Franchitti did it in 2010.
And he became the first driver to win the Indy 500 and lead the championship from wire-to-wire since Rutherford did it in a very different era 45 years prior.
Palou is understandably the favorite to win a fifth career (and fourth consecutive) championship in 2026, and a heavy favorite at that. He's also a co-favorite to defend his Indy 500 title, though unsurprisingly not nearly as heavy of a favorite as he is to finish atop the points chart after another 17-race season.
Still, the driver of the No. 10 DHL Honda is undoubtedly the driver to beat at Indianapolis Motor Speedway now as well. His 2025 win was no fluke; he hasn't finished lower than ninth since he crashed out during his rookie season in 2020, and he placed second behind four-time winner Helio Castroneves in his first Indy 500 with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2021.
He also battled back from 30th after pit road issues in both 2022 and 2023 to finish ninth and fourth, respectively. His fifth place finish in 2024 was probably his least impressive run, and that's saying a lot, considering he was leading the frontrunners at one point late in that race. And oh, by the way, he also won the 2025 oval championship.
But going back-to-back at Indy is hard to do. It has only been done twice since the turn of the century. If Palou can't do it in 2026, who are the favorites to beat him?
Here are the top seven. All odds are provided by DraftKings Sportsbook.
Pato O'Ward, Arrow McLaren
Odds: +550
Between Alex Palou and Pato O'Ward, it was hard to pick who was more "due" to win at Indy in 2025, and Palou came through. Will it be O'Ward's turn in 2026?
O'Ward, whose +550 odds place him in a tie with Palou atop the list, is a two-time Indy 500 runner-up (2022 and 2024) and finished third in 2025. It's hard to believe, given the fact that he is still 26 years old, but no active full-time driver has more career victories without an Indy 500 win than O'Ward.
Josef Newgarden, Team Penske
Odds: +600
Josef Newgarden's three-peat bid was derailed by a late fuel pump issue, but quite frankly, I don't think he'd have finished higher than third or fourth anyway, because of the fact that there were no late cautions to bunch up what was, by the usual Indy 500 standards, a relatively spread-out field.
Still, his drive from 32nd to the top five was impressive. If Team Penske can finally have a drama-free Indy 500 build-up, and Newgarden doesn't have a season in which it seems like everything goes wrong, he's hard to pick against.
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing
Odds: +850
On one hand, Scott Dixon might be the most successful driver in the history of Indianapolis Motor Speedway; nobody has led more laps. On another, it's been 18 years since he earned his one and only Indy 500 victory. But it's not hard to imagine he could have five or six by now.
Dixon never got a proper chance in 2025, with a pre-race mechanical issue resulting in a lengthy pit stop which mired him several laps off the lead lap for the entire race.
Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske
Odds: +1200
Speaking of never getting a proper chance in 2025, we have the driver whose only Indy 500 highlight was riding around with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment on the pace lap. Shortly thereafter, Scott McLaughlin crashed into the inside retaining wall on the front straightaway, even before the green flag dropped.
Indy is the only oval McLaughlin has ever competed on without scoring at least one top three finish in his first two starts; his best finish is sixth in five attempts. But he took pole in 2024 and led the most laps before falling back in the closing stages.
Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global
Odds: +1200
From top to bottom, Marcus Ericsson might well be the best active driver at Indy. He won the race in 2022, controversially placed second in 2023, and finished second in 2025 before being disqualified. The lone outlier was 2024, when he experienced a disastrous month of May and was fortunate just to qualify before being taken out by someone else's rookie mistake on the opening lap.
Ericsson is in a contract year with Andretti Global, and the Indy 500 is probably the race he has the best chance to win. Will that be a blessing, or a curse?
David Malukas, Team Penske
Odds: +1200
A year after being fired by McLaren and having to watch the Indy 500 as a fan, simply because he was injured during the offseason, David Malukas returned and ran third (second after Ericsson's disqualification) in his first year with A.J. Foyt Enterprises.
Now he is set to join Team Penske as Will Power's replacement behind the wheel of the No. 12 Chevrolet. He has been close to his first IndyCar win before, with most of those instances coming on ovals. What better way to break through than by winning the big one?
Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Odds: +1200
Takuma Sato has not yet been confirmed for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's fourth car, but it appears to be only a matter of time.
The general narrative surrounding this team has been that they have been missing something at Indy in recent years, yet Sato showed up in 2025, qualified a career-high second, led a race-high 51 laps, and finished ninth. He should once again challenge for his third Indy 500 win.
Honorable mentions: A.J. Foyt Enterprises' Santino Ferrucci (+1600), Andretti Global teammates Will Power (+1600) and Kyle Kirkwood (+1600), Ed Carpenter Racing teammates Christian Rasmussen (+1600) and Alexander Rossi (+1800)
Full Indy 500 odds can be found here are always subject to change.
The 110th running of the Indy 500 is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 24 and is the seventh race on the 2026 IndyCar schedule. The season is scheduled to get underway on Sunday, March 1 from the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.