By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief
Pato O’Ward had no shortage of words for rivals after finishing fourth in the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.
The 26-year-old became the first Mexican to start on the front row of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” in third, and was expected to be a force in the race after finishing runner-up two of the last three years. However, he found himself constantly chasing the field and in the end, didn’t have enough to push through the likes of David Malukas (AJ Foyt Racing), Marcus Ericsson (Andretti Global) and winner Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing).
O’Ward ended up leading just two laps on the day, and was left watching Palou make a late move on for the lead on Ericsson with 13 laps to go that ultimately decided the fate of the race.
“Pretty crap race,” O’Ward told FOX Sports. “It just sucks that it went down to the switcheroo for the last position of the race, and Ericsson kind of choked there and let Palou by; he just had to pedal it there. I don’t think it’s the finish that anybody here would have wanted to see.”
The Arrow McLaren driver also hit out on the competition, noting the number of inexperienced drivers that found themselves at the front on critical restarts. There were 14 lead changes among 22 drivers on the day, many of which were aided by seven cautions that made up 44 laps.
“I just feel like there was a bunch of non-experience in the front of the restarts, and some of those restarts were pathetic,” O’Ward continued. “Those were not up to the level of what we should be seeing at the Indy 500. So, this just felt like we were playing roulette in a casino and picking outside or inside, and just depended on what everyone else was choosing: you either got screwed or you made like 10 positions. Yeah, we got hosed there a couple times, but we made it up a little bit after a bit more in the middle.
“I fought my way as far as I could, I really did, so that’s all you can do sometimes.”
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