Written by Archie O’Reilly
Finishing second in the Indianapolis 500 will never be easy. It is anguish like no other.
It is never immediately ‘good points for the championship’ and is instead the most stark despair for the driver that often comes up short by mere metres. Unfortunately for Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, he was the driver in that position in 2024.
And not for the first time.
It was cruelly a second runner-up finish for O’Ward in three years at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) as he fell foul of a gutsy last-lap, penultimate-corner pass from now-back-to-back winner Josef Newgarden…
“It’s just a lot of emotion”
O’Ward is usually the bubbliest and most enthusiastic of characters. But as he pulled back into pit lane after the cool-down lap on Sunday, he had his head bowed and was uncharacteristically subdued. He took a few moments motionless as he semi-lifted himself from his cockpit, resting his helmet down against the top of the aeroscreen.
He wanted a final little bit of time to himself and with his thoughts to collect himself and calm down before removing his helmet as the tears flowed behind his visor.
“It was very wet in there,” O’Ward said.
Tears would continue to run for the driver of the No.5 Chevy along with members of his crew and family as he was embraced by a number of those in close quarters to him. It was a gut-wrenching watch to see somebody typically so effervescent in such a state.
Overall, it has been “a tough month” more O’Ward. He never quite had the car beneath him to match teammates Alexander Rossi and Kyle Larson in qualifying, finding himself starting still respectably in the middle of the third row in eighth. He was then left with the “helpless” feeling of an “annoying issue” proving difficult to solve after Monday’s practice session.
To O’Ward’s relief, his car “came alive” in the final two hours of practice on Carb Day and allowed him to rest a little more easily. But he admitted he had been struck down with a fever “for five nights straight” and was not sleeping as a result.
“It’s been a ride,” he said.
After languishing towards the lower end of the top 10 for much of the early part of the race, O’Ward did come into his own and had a car capable of challenging Newgarden - part of the month’s all-conquering Team Penske group. But having had that chance, and leading with two corners to go, only adds to the deflation.
“So much goes into this race,” O’Ward said. “I’m somebody that wears my heart on my sleeve. I don’t really hide anything. It’s just when you’ve come so close and you just can’t seem to get it right, it’s a lot of emotion.”
A consolation for O’Ward heading into the remainder of the IndyCar season, starting with the streets of Detroit in a matter of days, is that he has jumped up three spots to fourth in the championship. He did crack the occasional smile through the pain in his post-race press conference too and said “in a few hours” he felt the pain may subside a little.
He has since tweeted that he woke up “with a big smile” after all of the support he had been given by the fans. He acknowledged this on Sunday too after their rapturous support.
“Everybody here, the IndyCar community, all the IndyCar fans, people from Indianapolis, have really made it feel like home here to me,” he said. “I’m so thankful for that. I’m so grateful for that. I hope I put smiles on kids’ faces and people that were here out to support us. I hope that they go home tonight happy with the show that we gave them.”
O’Ward has been within the lead pack in each of his five years at the Speedway with Arrow McLaren. And parallels are already starting to be drawn to the likes of current Arrow McLaren sporting director Tony Kanaan, who took 12 years to win the great race - as was the case with Newgarden, prompting him to try and accept that he may never win.
“I think everybody’s path is different,” O’Ward said. “Some guys obviously get it done very early on and then never again and some guys take a long time. But I don’t think any of these guys have been basically in contention five years in a row and not gotten the win. That’s what I’m going through.
“Probably the closest one that’s been through that is probably Helio [Castroneves]. I know he has four [wins] but he’s been second a lot of times. So I think it’s a good thing that I’m finishing second. Maybe I get a couple in a row in the future… I don’t know. Maybe I don’t get any. This place doesn’t owe me anything. It’s just very cool to be a part of this event.”
The lows are part of the furniture of the IMS spectacle. And they make the highs all the more sweet when they do come around.
“I did everything in my power”
Could O’Ward have done more or done anything differently?
Could he have prevented Newgarden from being in position to pass him at Turn 3 on the final lap? Could he have been the one on the attack with two corners remaining?
These are questions that have probably floated through his consciousness. But O’Ward does not believe he could have done anything else differently against one of IndyCar’s greatest ever oval drivers, who has now cracked what it takes to succeed at the Speedway.
“Josef is a great competitor,” he said “I’ve raced wheel-to-wheel with him so many times. He’s obviously one of the stars in the series, one of the strong ones. I knew it was going to be a fight until the end. Just two corners short. I really thought that I did everything in my power to get it done.”
O’Ward knows what is needed to be in position to win - he spoke on Carb Day about needing to ideally be in the top two in the closing stages at the race. After crashing out of last year’s race inside the final 10 laps by trying to make a somewhat audacious move on Marcus Ericsson at Turn 3, there have been lessons to learn about risk-taking.
“It’s tough to know when to make the right decision because sometimes that opportunity maybe doesn’t come again,” he said. “Even if you’re not fighting for the lead at that point, you’re fighting for a position that's going to allow you to get to the lead, but if you don’t take those risks, you’re never going to get there. It’s really hard to say.”
Rather than sacrificing a strong result with a low percentage move in reaction to Newgarden’s outstanding pass this year, he opted to ensure he preserved a strong result for the championship. As hard to take as it was in the moment.
“Don’t finish in the wall because otherwise you can’t win the race,” O’Ward said of his learnings from last year on Media Day last week.
And even amid the disappointment of coming up short on Sunday, he still acknowledged the importance of keeping clean to the end. Even having put himself in some risky situations through the race - nigh on impossible to avoid given the vast allure of being able to go to victory circle and drink the famed milk.
“I’m glad that we finished the race,” he said. “I put that car in certain points where I didn’t know if I was going to come out the other end and in one piece because I just want to win this race so freaking bad.”
“The most crazy 500 I’ve had”
“I probably had a higher probability of shunting the car than getting back in one piece. But that’s what you have to do I guess.”
At the midway point of the race, there was every chance that O’Ward’s day could have been over. He had a major moment in the middle of Turn 2, almost crashing twice in the same incident and saving the car both times by essentially steering towards the SAFER barrier. It is one of the great saves on the IMS oval and led to the avoidance of a large incident.
“If there was one time where I had to put so much trust in my skill, it was today,” he said. “There were so many where I was like: ‘I don’t know if this is going to work out.’ I was so loose - so, so, so loose. It was just wiggling so much, moving around a lot.
“There were so many moments like that where I knew what to expect but sometimes you just never know when it’s going to want to bite. I risked so much today to put myself in contention to win this race but that’s what you have to do whenever you’re stuck in line like that. I did it when it counted.
“[It was] probably the most crazy 500 I’ve had for sure in terms of issues I was having within my car. So many moments.”
Ultimately, O’Ward is “very proud” with Arrow McLaren’s efforts across the Month of May, also resulting in Rossi finishing fourth after fighting at the front for a while but finding himself handicapped by a fuel deficit. They were evidently the second-best team behind a Penske team with unprecedented quality control between their entries for most of the month.
“They gave us the tools to fight,” O’Ward said. “It was just such a stressful race. We were up and down, up and down. The car definitely wasn’t the easiest to drive at certain moments. I just tried to keep peace as much of the race as I could. I feel like I did. Really prepared to open the doors to ultimately have a chance to win at the end of this.
“It’s just heartbreaking.”
“I know I can win this race”
O’Ward has many things within his skillset. And one particular thing that he has absolutely no absence of is self-belief. Even in the most downbeat of moments.
“I think in a way I’ve cracked a code and I know how to position myself to win this race,” he said. “I know I can win this race and I know that I know how to also protect a good result when maybe the win isn’t in the cards for me.
“It was a constant emotional roller coaster where things weren’t going perfectly smoothly. But I think the team did a fantastic job, gave me an opportunity and called a really good strategy to then get ourselves back to the front and made a very strong overcut, which ultimately put us into contention there in the end.”
Adding to the torment of the loss of the race on the final lap, O’Ward felt the team had fought “harder than I’ve ever had to” in his previous Indy 500 campaigns. His team opted to go onto the alternate strategy, on which he ousted Scott Dixon. To put in so much effort can bring solace but to still come up short amid that only adds to the extreme emotion.
“I think that’s why it’s just that much more emotional,” O’Ward said. “I put everything into today.”
O’Ward was not left too pleased with some of the driving standards on display towards the middle of the pack, where he found himself for a portion of the race. This considered and given he felt on the back foot at times, it added to his relief that he managed to stay out of any trouble and end up cycling forward.
“Every 500 for me has been very different,” he said. “There’s been some that I’ve led a lot more and been up front a lot more. This one we were stuck a lot more. Some people were driving like maniacs on the restarts. I was just playing defence for 85 percent of the race. Some of the moves out there were just mental… stupid.
“I was just glad that I didn’t touch anybody, I didn’t crash. I know how to make my way up in this place. All I needed to do was keep my car clean and for yellows to stop coming out. Where it gets good is when we can start getting creative with overcuts, undercuts and all that jazz. Glad I was able to do that.”
“He drove like a champion”
Another thing that O’Ward does not lack is respect from his competitors. Both winner Newgarden and third-place finisher Scott Dixon were asked about his efforts post-race and their praise was glowing for their competitor.
“I’m in a situation where I’m lucky to have won but Pato has come close a few times,” Dixon said. “It can go in cycles. As I’ve said many times, finishing second sucks. It’s horrible. You’d rather finish last, almost, at this place and be out of the race early. He’ll be fine. He’s got plenty of time on his hands.”
Newgarden commended O’Ward for his respectful driving in the late-race fight, suggesting that sort of outside move in Turn 3 would not work “unless you’re racing someone like Pato” in that situation. Unfortunately for O’Ward, it was the sixth time that he had finished second to Newgarden in his IndyCar career.
“He’s a champion, one of the best competitors we have in this field,” Newgarden said. “He’s a really nice guy. Every time I talk to Pato we have great conversations and I think we have a lot of respect for each other. I’m appreciative of the way that he drives. He drove like a champion in this race and he’s just as deserving of a winner in my opinion.
“He definitely could have won this race. It’s tough to not win it. I can’t say anything to ease that for him. When you don’t win, it hurts. I’ve left here 11 times prior with a broken heart so I know the feeling. Whether you’re close or you’re far, it’s a broken heart. I can’t ease that. But he’s a champion. I think he knows it. I definitely have a lot of respect for him.”
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