The 104th edition of the Indianapolis 500 is scheduled for August 23, 2020 in Speedway, Indiana. The 500-mile race is one of the most prestigious in all of motor sports. Together with the Monaco Grand Prix and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, it forms the Triple Crown of Motorsport.

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• Indianapolis 500 Schedule Of Events

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• Grand Prix of Indianapolis May 11, 2017 to May 13, 2017. Indy 500 May 26, 2017 to May 28, 2017. Detroit Jun 2, 2017 to Jun 4, 2017.
• Indy 500 Betting Odds Josef Newgarden +800 Will Power +800 Alexander Rossi +800 Simon Pagenaud +800 Scott Dixon +900 Helio Castroneves +1000 Ed Carpenter +1100 Spencer Pigot +1200 Colton Herta +1200 Marco Andretti +1400 Takuma Sato +1600 Ryan Hunter-Reay +1600 Ed Jones +1800 Sebastien Bourdais +2000 Graham Rahal +2500 (Odds provided by BookMaker.eu).
• INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY - SPEEDWAY INDIANA. SUNDAY MAY 28th 2017 TV - ABC WESTGATE LV. 5/23: 5/24: 5/24: 5/24: Scott Dixon: 4-1 +600 +625 +500: Helio Castroneves: 12-1 +1100 +1250 +1010: Juan Pablo Montoya: 12-1 +1200 +1350 +1115: Josef Newgarden: 15-1 +1500 +1400 +1420: Marco Andretti: 10-1 +1200.
• The 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge is scheduled for Sunday, May 30, 2021. The greatest drivers in racing will compete for racing immortality in 'The Greatest Spectacle in Racing' at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Join us Memorial Day Weekend and see who will drink the milk and kiss the bricks.

2017 Indy 500 Betting Odds. In Miscellaneous. It’s officially the month of May and race fans are turning their attention to the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500. The Greatest Spectacle in Racing has already generated buzz with the announcement that two-time Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso would be skipping the Monaco Grand Prix to partner with Andretti Autosport and run the Indy 500.

Indy 500 betting odds 2021

Scott Dixon is the betting favorite at the Indy 500, but a group of drivers isn’t far behind at around +800 (8/1) odds. That cluster includes Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti, who held off Dixon in qualifying to win the Indy 500 pole. See below for betting odds to win the 2020 Indy 500.

How to bet on the Indianapolis 500

Betting on race cars bears some similarities to horseracing. So, if you are familiar with handicapping the ponies, there will be some familiar ground here.

Pick the Winner

The first and simplest type of Indianapolis 500 wager is to pick the eventual winner. Almost every site that offers betting on motorsports will have this kind of wager available.

The odds on these types of bets are usually fairly long, even for the favorites. There are simply too many variables in motorsports that can affect the outcome of a race.

As a result, even the favorites don’t less than 6-1 odds.

Even past winners, such as Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan, are available at odds higher than 10:1 right now. So, there is quite a bit of variance in these kinds of situations.

Top Three Finish

Those accustomed to betting on horse races will recognize this style of betting. For all intents and purposes, betting on a top three finish is the same as a win-place-show bet on a particular horse.

Basically, this type of bet means that the bettor believes the chosen driver will finish somewhere in the top three. Given how long the odds are for any of the drivers in the field, it’s understandable that bettors would want a bit of leeway in the finishing order.

Head to Head Matchups

Head-to-head matchups essentially reduce the entire race down to two drivers. A bettor wagers on which of the two will place higher, even if those places are the last two in the field.

These matchups actually use moneylines in order to identify the favorite and underdog in each pairing. So, hypothetically, Will Power could go off at -125 to Helio Castroneves at +145..and so on.

Futures bets

Functionally, a future bet is the same as a pick the winner bet. The bettor is choosing a member of the field to win the race.

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However, the difference is time. These bets often occur weeks or months before the race itself.

As a result, they are subject to far more variation due to the risk of drivers suffering injuries, setbacks, or simply falling off their game in the interim time period. So, the odds for these bets can change quite a bit as race time approaches.

Proposition bets

Finally, a proposition bet on Indianapolis 500 tends to involve some sort of gimmick or angle to the wager. In other words, the conditions of the bet may only partially pertain to the driver’s actual ability.

So, a prop bet could be something like a wager on which former champion will place the highest, or perhaps a bet on the winner’s home country. In other words, a prop bet will have an element ancillary to the actual race itself that plays a part in the wager.

Indy 500 fast facts

For those in a hurry, here is a quick guide to the upcoming race:

• Date: Sunday, August 23, 2020
• Time: 12:30 p.m. Eastern
• TV: NBC
• Easiest way to watch online: Sign into NBC.com and submit cable subscription information
• Other online viewing options: Hulu, YouTube, Fubo, DirecTV, Sling, and IMS Stream
• Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana
• Distance: 500 miles (about 200 laps around the track)
• Surface: Asphalt and brick
• Race series: IndyCar
• Defending champion: Simon Pagenaud

A brief history of the Indianapolis 500

Indianapolis 500 Schedule Of Events

The Indianapolis 500 ran for the first time in 1911, with Ray Harroun winning the inaugural race. Since then, both the race and the racetrack have become one of the most famous auto races in the world. The annual event is often dubbed “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

The 500-mile race takes place in an open-wheel, open-cockpit format, meaning that vehicles’ tires and drivers are exposed to the open air. This format has come to be known as “Indy Car Racing,” due to its presence at this event.

The track itself is a rectangular oval nicknamed “The Brickyard” for its partial brick surfacing. Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the highest-capacity sports venue in the world, with permanent seating for over 250,000 patrons. On race day, more than 300,000 will watch the race.

As with many venerated sporting events, there are several traditions associated with the Indianapolis 500. Before each race, race officials and a designated singer lead the crowd in a rendition of “Back Home Again in Indiana.”

The winning driver traditionally drinks from a bottle of milk to celebrate his victory. Below is a list of the most recent competitors to sample dairy products at the end of the race.

Recent Indianapolis 500 winners

Predicting the winner of the Indy 500 based on the odds is as tricky as ever in 2020, when the Greatest Spectacle in Racing is running in August for the first time in its 104-year history. The 2.5-mile oval track will be hot and slick, and wind will be unpredictable.

On top of that, recent Indy 500 history is not necessarily helpful. The last nine Indy 500s have produced nine different winners. This is the result of the endless variables that determine who will get to drink the milk in victory lane.

MORE: Get the latest betting odds & advice from Sports Insider

This year's Indy 500 is running a few months behind schedule because the COVID-19 pandemic made a traditional May race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway impossible. The 2020 IndyCar schedule didn't start until early June with a race at Texas, and the Indy 500 is the seventh race on that schedule.

Below are the complete Vegas odds to win the Indy 500 in 2020, plus our top three picks of drivers who could end up taking the checkered flag.

Indy 500 odds to win 2020 race

Scott Dixon is the favorite to win the 2020 Indy 500 in part because he showed so much speed in last weekend's qualifying sessions. He qualified second behind pole-sitter Marco Andretti, but only after Andretti edged him by .017 mph, the third-closest margin in the history of Indianapolis qualifying.

Below are the complete odds to win the Indy 500 in 2020, courtesy of Sports Insider.

Of the top five drivers on the Indy 500 odds board, only Josef Newgarden will start the race outside the top 10. Newgarden will start 13th after failing to advance to the Fast Nine Shootout.

Alexander Rossi will start the Indy 500 ninth, and Ryan Hunter-Reay will start fifth.

Simon Pagenaud, the winner of last year's Indy 500 who ranks sixth on the odds board for this year's race, will start way back in 25th.

MORE: Complete starting lineup for Indy 500

Indy 500 expert picks

1. Scott Dixon

Dixon is the IndyCar Series points leader in 2020 with three wins in six races. He also is due for an Indy 500 victory after last winning the series' biggest race back in 2008.

The speed in Dixon's car was made evident by his qualifying sessions, as he nearly edged Andretti for the Indy 500 pole. It was evident in the season-opener at Texas Motor Speedway, too, which is the only somewhat comparable track on which the series has raced this season. Dixon led 157 of the 200 laps on his way to a win that night.

2. Josef Newgarden

We have to pick at least one Team Penske driver to win Sunday's Indy 500, as the Penske stable has produced the last two Indy 500 winners — Pagenaud last year and Will Power in 2018.

Newgarden has never won an Indy 500, but he is third in the IndyCar points standings and has a series-high three poles this season. His team has the speed required to win the Indy 500, something that was made clear when he led 214 of 250 laps at Iowa Speedway in the series' latest race.

3. Graham Rahal

This is our upset pick. Rahal has never won an Indy 500 in 12 starts, and his best finish is third. He is sixth in IndyCar Series points, and his eighth-place starting position suggests he has good speed. It's his best starting position for an Indy 500 since he started seventh and finished 12th in 2010.

A Rahal finishing first in an Indy 500 that started with an Andretti in first would be fitting.