In almost every sport, one team or one athlete stands above the rest. For the IndyCar Series, it’s Team Penske. Will Power and Josef Newgarden finished first and second in the driver standings last season while Scott McLaughlin finished fourth. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that the IndyCar odds favor Newgarden (+400) and Power (+500) as 2023’s winner.
Let’s check the latest MotorSports picks, stats, injury reports, and MotorSports prediction. We’ve got plenty of MotorSports lines for you to consider.
With a name like Will Power…@12WillPower was determined to win his second NTT @INDYCAR SERIES championship, and the Astor Challenge Cup is his. pic.twitter.com/sAYQO3RBFw
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) September 11, 2022
Newgarden and Power: Who Has the Edge?
The 2023 IndyCar season’s most intriguing battle at the top will be between the teammates. It might be possible to bet on each and still come away with a profit provided either one wins. Why not? The two have combined to win four of the last nine IndyCar Series trophies.
But picking between the two is a matter of preference. Newgarden has a higher ceiling and has more of a “boom or bust” result. The 32-year-old’s four victories in 2022 led the season and he’s still considered the best driver by most media outlets. But he also finished outside of the top 10 five times.
For Power, consistency was key. The 41-year-old won one race but had seven other top-three finishes. He finished in the top five in 12 of the 17 races. It was an emphatic bounce-back season for the Australian who only finished ninth in 2021.
McLaughlin, on the other hand, broke out last season. The Kiwi opened strong with a victory in St. Petersburg then followed it up as a runner-up in Texas. He struggled right after but finished strong to secure a fourth-placed finish. Racing behind Newgarden and Power is a daunting task but he’s tied for the fourth-shortest odds to win at +800 on the sportsbook.
Chip Ganassi Has Quantity
No one can count Chip Ganassi Racing out when it comes to the IndyCar Series. While Newgarden and Power won four of the last nine titles, Chip Ganassi won the other five thanks mainly to Scott Dixon. At 42, Dixon proved he “still got it” by coming in third last season. He won two races and finished in the top five nine times. Had he had a better showing in the Laguna Seca and Gateway, he may have captured a seventh title. He’s 10-1 to win this season.
The other title was won by Alex Palou. While the Spaniard tried to ditch the team, a lawsuit rectified their little disagreement and he’s now back in his final year. Maybe Palou will be more motivated to win to prove a point. At +800, he’s tied with McLaughlin and Colton Herta to win his second title.
And last but not least is Marcus Ericsson (+1200). The Swede won the Indianapolis 500 and has three total twins with Chip Ganassi in the past two seasons. He finished with 506 points last season, which is a career-best for him. However, he did fade down the stretch and failed to secure a top-five finish after the Grand Prix of Toronto.
During the race, he proved dominance by leading 115 laps (including the last 29), resulting in racing an average speed of 143.567 mph.
Scott Dixon, who races for @CGRTeams in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, has the record for most laps led all-time in the Indianapolis 500 race. pic.twitter.com/q4qY6CzaaI— Dallara (@DallaraGroup) March 1, 2023
Arrow McLaren and the Other Contenders
Palou was supposed to leave Chip Ganassi for McLaren. That did not materialize though the team still has Pato O’Ward s a strong candidate to capture the team’s first IndyCar Series win at +600.
O’Ward is third with this line and while he has never won, the youngster has had his moments. He won two races in each of the last two seasons but ran into some bad luck that took him out of contention.
Felix Rosenqvist (+2000) also returns now that the deal with Palou fell through while Alexander Rossi (+2500) is the hot new acquisition. Rosenqvist finished eighth last season by nearly doubling his points from 2021.
Rossi will look for a career renaissance with his new team. Since finishing third overall in 2019, he hasn’t come close to equalling that feat though he did win the Gallagher Grand Prix in what was one of his five top-five finishes.
Herta, at +800, is Andretti Autosport’s biggest hope for a title. He won the 2022 GMR Grand Prix and came in second in Toronto. But his 10th-placed finish was a disappointment after finishing fifth in 2022 and third in 2021.
All these other contenders have a case for winning though they fall a tier or two below the likes of Newgarden and Power. It would take an “off year” plus improvements from the rest to unseat the Team Penske combo.
