The NTT IndyCar season gets underway on Sunday, as Barber Motorsports Park, in Birmingham, Alabama, will host the season opener, with the broadcast coming on NBC. The field will contain an intriguing crop of drivers making their debut, including a New Zealander who built his reputation in Supercars, a French driver with a solid Formula One resume and a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.
Let’s take a look at your online IndyCar betting odds for the first race’s winner.
NTT IndyCar: Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama Preview
| Driver | Odds |
| Josef Newgarden | +300 |
| Scott Dixon | +500 |
| Will Power | +550 |
| Alexander Rossi, Simon Pagenaud | +800 |
| Colton Herta | +900 |
| Felix Rosenqvist | +1000 |
| Pato O’Ward | +1400 |
| Takuma Sato | +1600 |
| Graham Rahal | +2000 |
| Ryan Hunter-Reay, Sebastien Bourdais, Rinus Veekay | +2500 |
| Scott McLaughlin | +2800 |
| James Hinchcliffe, Jimmie Johnson, Romain Grosjean | +3300 |
| Marcus Ericsson | +4000 |
| Alex Palou | +5000 |
| Jack Harvey | +6600 |
| Conor Daly, Ed Jones | +8000 |
| Max Chilton, Dalton Kellett | +25000 |
Jimmie Johnson has changed, at the age of 45, to racing in a car that is significantly lighter and has braking points that are completely different from his NASCAR vehicles — and that also has no power steering. This might be one of the most difficult transitions for any IndyCar rookie in the history of the sport. This season, he will race on 13 different road and street courses, only one of which saw him win a race as a NASCAR Cup Series driver. With coach Dario Franchitti helping him, though, Johnson has put in a ton of hours in offseason testing. However, going from one sport that has been a way of life for two decades to driving a completely different type of car will make this interesting for him. Johnson has been taking part in IMSA races to get used to the increased downforce in the setup. Even so, he is still behind as far as experience with different tire compounds, such as what he will see in warmer climes with street courses. HE only got six testing sessions because of IndyCar’s new regulations, so Johnson practiced in Formula 3 cars just to figure out the new way of driving. So even though Johnson has taken some trash talk from his former NASCAR rivals, he is excited about what comes next. While teammate Scott Dixon has been more than willing to give advice, Dixon remains focused in his 21st season, coming in as the defending IndyCar champion.
The young drivers in IndyCar will make for exciting watching as well. Rinus VeeKay won the first pole position of his career at Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course. Alex Palou had an impressive rookie season and looks to make more progress this year. Pato O’Ward came in fourth overall in points, finding the podium four times. VeeKay fractured a thumb in a crash during Indy 500 testing, but he did not seem intimidated in the aftermath. Palou has predicted that he will win IndyCar before either of his Spanish countrymen who are in Formula 1 (Carlos Sainz Jr and Fernando Alonso) win that title. O’Ward brings natural speed, and his teammate Fleix Rosenqvist won at Road America a year ago.
How will some of the sport’s top names perform now that they are entering contract years? Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Ray and Simon Pagenaud are going into their last years. Roger Penske has indicated that re-inking Pagenaud and Power, both former Indianapolis 500 winners, will just be a formality. Of the three, the most pressure might be on Hunter-Reay, who is now 40 and had his fourth winless season in the last five campaigns. He won the 2012 IndyCar championship and has 18 race wins overall, including the 2014 Indianapolis 500. However, this remains a business focused on what drivers have done lately, and so he needs to deliver in 2021.
IndyCar Betting Odds
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