108th Indianapolis 500 Betting Guide: Preview, Statistics & Picks

2024 Indianapolis 500

The 2024 Indianapolis 500 will be the 108th time the race has been held, the new sponsor for 2024 is yet to be announced, the 2023 race was the final year of the four-year sponsorship deal with online financial services company Gainbridge who agreed on the deal in 2019.

The race is a five-hundred-mile (804km), two-hundred-lap contest as part of the IndyCar Series which will take place in May of 2024 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana.

If motorsports are something you enjoy then we have other blogs covering these which may be of interest to you:

• IndyCar Series Betting Guide
• NASCAR Cup Series Betting Guide
• Who will win the F1 Drivers Championship
• Constructors Championship Betting Guide

Some of those not so familiar with the Indianapolis 500 may be wondering why the winner of the Indianapolis 500 drinks milk. The tradition goes back to 1933 when after winning his second race, Louis Meyer had a glass of milk, his reason was? because his mother told him that a glass of buttermilk on a hot day is the best thing to drink! It wasn't until 1956 that the tradition really took hold though and since then every winner had celebrated with a drink of milk. Emmerson Fittipaldi in 1993 decided to break tradition with orange juice before his milk, a move that didn't go down well!

Another tradition involves the Yard of Bricks and the 'Kissing of the Bricks' where the winner of the Indy 500 as well as the Brickyard 400 head over to kiss the bricks, this has been a tradition since Dale Jarrett first did it in 1996 after winning the Brickyard 400.

If you are planning on having a wager on the Indianapolis 500 then be sure to give these two articles a read beforehand, the first looks at which Sportsbook is best for Motor Racing, and then the second is a Motor Racing Betting Advice guide. 

Past Indianapolis 500 Winners

There have been one hundred and seven previous races, and from those, there has been a total of seventy-five different winners. Marcus Ericsson's win in 2022 was the first Swedish success since Kenny Bräck won the race back in 1999. Alexander Rossi who won the race in 2016 was the last rookie to win the race, in the last seventeen races, we have only seen three American drivers win the Indy 500, Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2014, Alexander Rossi in 2016, and then after a long wait, Josef Newgarden in 2023.

Who will be you wagering on to win the 107th Indianapolis 500? If you are planning on backing a driver then head over to our Best Betting Sites in the USA to find yourself a sportsbook.

Indianapolis 500 Winners by Country

As you would expect with the majority of the drivers being homegrown, the Americans have won the large majority of the Indy 500 races, seventy-five races have been won by an American driver with fifty-three drivers making up those seventy-five wins.

There is no other country that has managed double figures, the closest to the American drivers are both Great Britain and Brazil who have notched up eight winners apiece, GB from five drivers and Brazil from four drivers.

France has managed four wins from four different drivers whilst Sweden, Colombia, Japan, and the Netherlands have all notched up two wins each. Australia, Canada, Italy, and New Zealand round off the list with one win each.

• 75 Wins: USA
• 8 Wins: BRA & GBR
• 4 Wins: FRA
• 2 Wins: COL, JPN, NLD & SWE
• 1 Win: AUS, CAN, ITA & NZL

Indianapolis 500 Winners by Driver

There are three American drivers who have won the race four times, A. J. Foyt (1961, 64, 67 & 77), Rick Mears (1979, 84, 88 & 91), and Al Unser (1970, 71, 78 & 87) are the three who have four wins apiece.

Those top the charts for the number of wins, however, they are also joined by Hélio Castroneves, the Brazilian's win in 2021 made it four wins having also won in 2001, 2002 & 2009.

Indianapolis 500 Picks

We have two pages where we cover motor racing, first of all, we have the  Motor Racing Betting Picks page where you will find predictions for any upcoming motor racing that is covered on OLBG.

Finally, we have the Best Motor Racing Tipsters which only highlights tipsters who over the past year have shown a profit for their motor racing predictions.

Contributor Details

Andy Powell manages all of our Motor Racing content as a huge F1 and Speedway fan, giving up much of his weekend to watching the action unfold in qualifying and betting on the various potential outcomes as well as managing the Motor Racing Tips and Tipsters in the competition. Ably assisting with the data collection as necessary is our Data Scientist on the expert team, Dan Tracey.

Dan Tracey

Data scientist and football editor

Dan Tracey is a multi-talented writer, data analyst and podcaster whose six-year career in the sports data sphere has seen incredible successes. From helping UEFA create their annual technical reports to writing articles for Sports Betting Websites including sites like TheLinesUS and Goal - there's no shortage of areas where his expertise shines through!

Andy Powell

Content editor

🏎️🏁 Outside of horse racing and football, Andy also enjoys spending his weekends following Formula 1. His dedication is such that he doesn't mind setting alarms for odd hours to catch both qualifying sessions and the races.