If we are being honest, most fans on this side of the globe don’t care much about open-wheel racing, much less betting on it. It used to be fairly big but NASCAR has totally overtaken it. But there is one event each year that draws good betting action and TV ratings and that’s the most historic race in America: the Indianapolis 500. The 100th running of the race is Sunday and your online betting favorite is Canadian pole-sitter James Hinchliffe.
A Look at the Online Betting Report on Indianapolis 500 Picks and Predictions
The event, billed as The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, is considered part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, which comprises three of the most prestigious motorsports events in the world. The inaugural running was won by Ray Harroun in 1911. The race celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2011, and the 100th running will be held Sunday. Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya is the defending champion.
With three laps to go last year, Montoya made a pass on the outside of teammate Will Power going into Turn One and made it stick. Montoya then held on to win his second career Indy 500, having also won in 2000 as a rookie. Montoya then left IndyCar racing to experiment in NASCAR, which didn’t go well so he returned to open-wheel racing. Montoya, Power and Scott Dixon traded the top three spots several times in a wild final 15 laps of the race. Power finished second, Charlie Kimball third and Dixon faded to fourth at the end. Graham Rahal finished fifth. Montoya and Power are among the favorites this year as well.
Hinchcliffe is quite a story in winning the pole. Hinchcliffe, who almost bled to death after being impaled by a piece of the car’s suspension during an Indy 500 practice run last year, posted a four-lap average Sunday at the 2.5-mile track with a speed of 230.760 mph to take the pole over Josef Newgarden and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Hinchcliffe earned his first career IndyCar Series pole in the biggest race of his career. He had qualified second for last year’s race, the same position he held in 2012. Since his return to the Verizon IndyCar Series this year, Hinchcliffe has scored one top-five and three top-10 finishes. Hinchcliffe’s car is owned by Sam Schmidt, a former racer who became a paraplegic after a crash while testing an IndyCar in 2000.
“Hinch” edged Newgarden’s No. 21 Preferred Freezer Chevrolet from Ed Carpenter Racing by .0407 of a second. Newgarden, a 25-year-old Tennessean, has won two series races, earned one pole and will be starting second for the sixth time in his series career but didn’t qualify better than seventh in four previous Indy 500 starts.
Next to them on the outside of the front row is Andretti Autosport’s Hunter-Reay, who celebrated a career accomplishment with his Indy 500 victory two years ago and equaled his best previous 500 qualifying effort in his No. 28 DHL Honda. The only other time in nine starts that he qualified as well was when he started third in 2012. The driver next to him that race was Hinchcliffe. They were Andretti teammates from 2012 to 2014.
Honda-powered drivers took both sides of the front row and the first two spots on the second row, giving the Japanese brand four cars in the top five to lead the field into the 100th Running of the great race on May 29.
I like Hunter-Reay in online betting to win the race.
Current Odds to Win the Indy 500
Will Power #12 +600
Simon Pagenaud #22 +600
Juan Pablo Montoya #2 +600
Helio Castroneves #3 +650
Scott Dixon #9 +650
Tony Kanaan #10 +900
James Hinchcliffe #5 +1200
Josef Newgarden #21 +1200
Sebastien Bourdais #11 +1600
Ryan Hunter-Reay #28 +2000
Marco Andretti #27 +2000
Townsend Bell #29 +2200
Graham Rahal #15 +2500
JR Hildebrand #6 +3300
Takuma Sato #14 +3300
Carlos Munoz #26 +3300
Charlie Kimball #42 +4000
Mikhail Aleshin #7 +4000
Ed Carpenter #20 +5000
Oriol Servia #77 +5000
Alex Tagliani #35 +6600
Max Chilton #8 +6600
Sage Karam #24 +6600
Alexander Rossi #98 +10000
Conor Daly #18 +10000
Jack Hawksworth #41 +10000
Stefan Wilson #25 +10000
Bryan Clauson #88 +10000
Gabby Chaves #19 +10000
Matthew Brabham #61 +10000
Spencer Pigot #16 +10000
Buddy Lazier #4 +10000
Pippa Mann #63 +15000
Starting Lineup
Results of qualifying for the 100th Running of Indianapolis 500 IndyCar Series event on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with rank, car number in parentheses, driver, aero-kit/engine, time and speed in parentheses:
1. (5) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 02:36.0063 (230.760)
2. (21) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 02:36.0470 (230.700)
3. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 02:36.0821 (230.648)
4. (29) Townsend Bell, Honda, 02:36.1950 (230.481)
5. (26) Carlos Munoz, Honda, 02:36.3264 (230.287)
6. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 02:36.7471 (229.669)
7. (7) Mikhail Aleshin, Honda, 02:36.8205 (229.562)
8. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 02:37.1096 (229.139)
9. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 02:37.1265 (229.115)
10. (77) Oriol Servia, Honda, 02:37.1638 (229.060)
11. (98) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 02:37.5679 (228.473)
12. (14) Takuma Sato, Honda, 02:37.8747 (228.029)
13. (9) Scott Dixon, Chevrolet, 02:37.9007 (227.991)
14. (27) Marco Andretti, Honda, 02:37.9161 (227.969)
15. (6) JR Hildebrand, Chevrolet, 02:37.9809 (227.876)
16. (42) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 02:38.0180 (227.822)
17. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 02:38.1141 (227.684)
18. (10) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 02:38.2906 (227.430)
19. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 02:38.2919 (227.428)
20. (20) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 02:38.4325 (227.226)
21. (19) Gabby Chaves, Honda, 02:38.4566 (227.192)
22. (8) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 02:38.8100 (226.686)
23. (24) Sage Karam, Chevrolet, 02:38.9851 (226.436)
24. (18) Conor Daly, Honda, 02:39.0721 (226.312)
25. (63) Pippa Mann, Honda, 02:39.2877 (226.006)
26. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 02:39.4002 (225.847)
27. (61) Matt Brabham, Chevrolet, 02:39.4846 (225.727)
28. (88) Bryan Clauson, Honda, 02:39.8111 (225.266)
29. (16) Spencer Pigot, Honda, 02:40.1087 (224.847)
30. (25) Stefan Wilson, Chevrolet, 02:40.2833 (224.602)
31. (41) Jack Hawksworth, Honda, 02:40.2878 (224.596)
32. (4) Buddy Lazier, Chevrolet, 02:42.0498 (222.154)
33. (35) Alex Tagliani, Honda, No time (No speed)
