O'Ward "made sure I was going to be the winning one" en route to Toronto victory
- Dan Jones
- Jul 20, 2025
- 8 min read
P11, P8, P17.
Pato O'Ward's three previous visits to Toronto had been abysmal by the standards that he holds himself to. On Friday, he had labelled the circuit as his worst track on the entire schedule and this weekend felt like damage limitation in his hopes of claiming second in the standings. 48 hours later, O'Ward finds himself in Victory Lane celebrating his second win of the season.
"It's a big day," O'Ward said. "It's a very big day. It feels pretty special in a place that has arguably been one of the biggest headaches every single year that we come here. It just feels good. It's a really good feeling that we didn't just nail the strategy and get lucky, but we also had to earn our win today. It wasn't given to us. We had the car to be able to do that."
O'Ward was frustrated after qualifying, not for the first time this season, after being unable to replicate the encouraging form that he had showed in practice.
"It's so frustrating because I feel like I was best of the rest in practice. I feel like I was third or fourth. The Andrettis were on another planet. And in qualifying, sadly we weren't the best of the rest. We still struggled even more just to transfer to Q1."
Toronto marked the sixth time this season that the Mexican had transferred into the Fast 12, but one of IndyCar's most consistent qualifiers has only appeared in the Fast Six on a road or street course once this season, when he took pole at the Thermal Club. His struggles in qualifying has forced O'Ward to drive through the field on Sunday's in order to bring good results as was the case on his last road/street race at Mid-Ohio where he recovered from 15th to fifth.
"We keep making our Sundays so much harder than what they have to be," O'Ward added. "Qualifying has been not our friend. But Sundays have been. I feel like the gist of this year for at least the No.5 side, it feels like it's always a recovery Sunday, always been a recovery Sunday. We keep fighting our way forward."
Post-Saturday on Toronto, it felt like O'Ward would have to execute another recovery Sunday after qualifying 10th, but there was more cause for optimism than despair after the result.
"I think it just made us look, let's really see where we've been strong this weekend. These street courses, the two tyres, they've been so different. I think you see it with some other cars. They were so strong on the primes in Practice 1, Practice 2. Then you get to qualifying, which is the tyre you need to transfer with, the alternate, and it's such a small window, if any.
"I talked to my engineer after that meeting. I think it looked a lot worse than what that car actually felt, at least with what we're going to need in the race. Ultimately that's what opens doors to having better races. Then you really rely on having a strong car on Sunday.
"I knew we had it. I told him, as long as we have something to fight with, we're going to be fine. It was very reminiscent to what it felt like going into the Mid-Ohio race. Obviously we were strong there. Just unlucky in qualifying. But here we were starting five positions further. Another goal was to be in the top 10 for all three cars."
O'Ward wasn't satisfied with that goal.
"I was like f**k a top 10. We started 15th, ended fifth in Mid-Ohio. No, we can win, we can be on the podium."
O'Ward knew he was strong on the primary tyre, and the first step was to get onto the tyre he knew he could compete with. He was one of several cars to ditch the less-preferred, alternate tyre on Lap 2 in order to complete the race on the primary compound in a bid to move up the order. When O'Ward exited pit road, he was the lead of that group.
"We had a great pit stop, the first pit stop. It was freaking awesome. The guys were great. We pushed hard in, we pushed hard out. We undercut everybody that was on the alternate. That was the first step."
The strategy would further play into O'Ward's hands just moments after when Scott McLaughlin's rear left tyre came loose, sending the Penske driver into the barrier and bringing out the caution. The time O'Ward had lost to the field on pit road and been nullified and suddenly he was the lead driver on the preferred strategy. There was still the threat from drivers attempting the two-stop though, particularly in Álex Palou and Scott Dixon who had claimed eight victories between themselves in 2025.
O'Ward's aggressive strategy saw him make his second stop on Lap 29 and moments later, Alexander Rossi found himself into the barrier at Turn 11. O'Ward had hit the jackpot once again with the yellow.
His deficit may have been nullified again by the caution, but there was still plenty of work to do.
"We could have just kind of maintained there and waited for the other guys to start peeling off. I didn't really want to do that. I started picking them off one by one.
"I had a car that I could attack with. I had a car I could really put it where I needed to, at least just to get by people. We had to get really aggressive there sometimes. We had to get our elbows out a little bit if we want to keep this championship somewhat of a conversation."
O'Ward did as he intended. He overtook Will Power on the restart before picking off Conor Daly three laps later and Kyffin Simpson the following lap.
His work would still not be done there though, Rinus VeeKay and Dale Coyne Racing had played their strategy cards perfectly and VeeKay was posing more of a challenge to O'Ward than others.
It was clear O'Ward could not get the move done on-track, his final opportunity would be on pit road.
VeeKay made his final stop on Lap 57, O'Ward made his two laps later, and the sight on Princes Boulevard was the Arrow McLaren coming out ahead. The overcut had been complete and O'Ward was now in the box seat.
"VeeKay was super strong. That's why I said that I need to be behind the lead car. It's a lot tougher if I was behind maybe Simpson. I don't think I would have had the opportunity to overcut on VeeKay. It was just positioning myself to make it happen."
It would be relatively smooth sailing from that point forward. O'Ward held off VeeKay's brief challenge and the only way that victory could slip out of his hands was an error or a caution. On Lap 88, the caution flashed in front of O'Ward's eyes when Felix Rosenqvist hit the barrier and collected Nolan Siegel just corners ahead of O'Ward.
O'Ward came out unscathed, and with no time to restart the race, he crossed the line for his second victory in three races.
"It feels really good to earn it today," O'Ward said. "It really does. Especially in a place that's been a very tough weekend basically every time we come here. I'm really happy for everyone. Happy for Chevy, as well. Otherwise it was going to be a Honda, so... I'm really pleased with today.
"It just feels good. It's a really good feeling that we didn't just nail the strategy and get lucky, but we also had to earn our win today. It wasn't given to us. We had the car to be able to do that.
"They [the team] did a great strategy. I made sure that I was going to be the winning one."
Although he may not have made as many headlines as he has in previous seasons, this now marks the best season of O'Ward's career. Although he lies some 99 points off the championship lead due to Palou's brilliance, he has a comfortable 74-point margin over third in the standings.
Toronto added to his recent victory in Iowa, and marked his sixth of the season - the same tally that he achieved last season and just one podium off his most in a season which was achieved in 2023. O'Ward remains the only Chevrolet driver to win this season.
Although a championship battle still seems far-fetched with Palou's points lead still very formidable after a 12th place finish, O'Ward is not giving up hope on causing a surprise.
"We need to make sure that we continue to have days like today, not just one but a few. I think we're going to keep this conversation going until Nashville. That's my goal.
"Obviously we're at a time in the championship where we're going to have to get a little bit more into the conversation of getting our elbows out because that's what I had to do today just to open the doors to having a chance to win this race. That's the only way we're even going to catch a whiff of making him sweat a little bit.""
This only marked Palou's second appearance outside the top 10 this season and only his third outside the top five. The next two races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Portland International Raceway have been strongholds for the Spaniard with two victories and a second place historically at both venues.
O'Ward will be favoured at the final two rounds of the season at the Milwaukee Mile and Nashville Superspeedway where he finished first and second respectively last season.
Pre-weekend, O'Ward's Toronto shortcomings meant a simple goal. Cut the half-a-second deficit from previous years in half. This meant a completely new package on the No.5 which paid dividends for the Mexican.
"It's more of a feeling like you have something that is somewhat consistent when you throw something random at it. If you dive into the inside, if you take maybe a different line somewhere, something that's not just going to be like 'screw you' and lose three seconds, that's a little bit of a consistency that we've always been trying to find, which in the race has always been better for us.
"That's basically what you need. You need a car that you can attack with and that you can pass people. I feel like you can't just always rely on strategy. If we just relied on strategy today, I think maybe we would catch a whiff of a podium. But that's not enough. You need something to be able to really fight your way forward, especially if we're 10th, 15th, 12th."
This weekend had added significance for O'Ward and the team, with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown in attendance. Brown has primarily placed his focus on the efforts of McLaren's Formula One operations, where they are 1-2 in the Drivers' Championship as well as having a comfortable margin in the Constructors' Championship.
O'Ward has taken all eight of Arrow McLaren's victories since the marque returned to the series in 2020, although Brown has not been present on any of those previous occasions. Brown can finally celebrate IndyCar victory with those who achieved it.
"Zac is the superstar this weekend. He's never been at any of our wins. He's been close, at the 500. He's never been at one of our wins.
"I'm glad and I'm super happy that I can give him that first memory of his INDYCAR team, at least first win being there in the flesh.
"It's a really cool place to do it at. Kind of wish I would stay tonight and party. It's a nice city here. But I'm going to go home. It's been a crazy four weeks. We've got another one coming up. So yeah. ..."
As O'Ward highlights, the series in the midst of a stretch of five races in four weeks, with Laguna Seca's race next week ending that streak of successive races. Although a taxing stretch for both O'Ward and team, he has claimed a top five finish in each of those races thus far.
However tiring a stretch like this may be, days like Toronto mean that it is all worth it.
"It's wearing. It's important for people to make time for themselves. I hope that this keeps them going, as it's going to keep me going. Days like today are ultimately what pull you back anytime you have a not even a bad day, like lots of bad days or a bad season. Days like today are what you work for."
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