2018 Indianapolis 500 Betting Preview: Rossi Favored on Odds for Sunday's Race

Starting position may or may not be a key factor in Sunday's Indianapolis 500, but sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark do not seem to mind where the best drivers will begin the race.

Favorite Alexander Rossi is listed on the 2018 Indianapolis 500 odds at +800 (bet $100 to win $800), and he will start from the last (and 11th) row this time around after he won it from the fourth row as a rookie in 2016 and finished seventh in 2017 from the first row.

Rossi qualified 32nd on Sunday, and it is worth noting that a driver has found a way to win the Indianapolis 500 after starting from the seventh row or further back only once since 1987. Ryan Hunter-Reay won it from the 19th position in 2014, and he also had the most laps led that year with 56. 

That would seem to put three-time winner Helio Castroneves into a good spot from the third row. He is one of three drivers tied for the second choice at +1000.

Castroneves, who is not driving in the IndyCar series full-time this year, won the race in 2001, 2002 and 2009, and he has also finished in the top 10 a remarkable 14 times in 17 attempts. If he takes the checkered flag again this year, he will join A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears as the only four-time winners. He did not start from beyond the fifth row in any of his previous Indy 500 wins.

The other two drivers who are also +1000 on the Indy 500 betting lines include 2018 points leader Josef Newgarden and Will Power. Five others are right behind them at +1200: Hunter-Reay, pole sitter Ed Carpenter, Scott Dixon, Sebastian Bourdais and Simon Pagenaud. Unlike Rossi, who is second in points this season, and Castroneves, Newgarden and Power have never won the Indianapolis 500.

However, Hunter-Reay and Dixon have (the latter in 2008), giving them some value along with last year's winner. Takuma Sato (+3000) will be attempting to win the race in back-to-back years for the first time since Castroneves accomplished the feat 16 years ago.

The odds, though, seem to be against that happening, since he is starting 16th on Sunday (12:05 p.m. ET). The Japanese is driving for his third team in as many years with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. RLL owner Bobby Rahal, who won Indy in 1986, will be guiding him, son Graham (+3000) and Oriol Servia (+10000).

For more odds information, betting picks and a breakdown of this week's top sports betting news check out the OddsShark podcast with Jon Campbell and Andrew Avery. Subscribe on iTunes or listen to it at OddsShark.libsyn.com.