Pato O’Ward Leads Final Practice at Gateway

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

MADISON, Ill. – A busy Friday at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway is complete, with one final practice session in the books for Saturday’s running of the Bommarito Automotive Group 500.

Pato O’Ward, looking to build on previous success at Gateway, where he has finished second in three of his last four starts at the track and never lower that fourth, topped the charts in the final one-hour session of the day in his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet with a lap of 25.7572 seconds, 174.708 mph.

O’Ward noted he wasn’t super comfortable with his car after the opening practice session and qualifying, but obviously, the team figured something out before final practice to help get him dialed in.

“I’m not miserable in the car, but I’m not super confident to really take it to the limit,” O’Ward said after qualifying.

“We didn’t have so much time in practice to really dial it in or I guess we needed a little bit more to dial it in for qualifying. So we’re kind of guessing going into qualifying and kind of pick and choosing our fights, I would say. And our risks where we want to take ’em. It’s just so high commitment now with more downforce.”

Sitting fifth in the standings with five races to go, O’Ward added that maximizing every race from here on out is first and foremost on his mind.

“It’s still a points race for second place. I’ve never been second in the championship, so, there’s five races to go and it can go south so quickly,” O’Ward said of his mindset going forward.

“You still think about the points now, but I wanna maximize the weekend. Like at some points you just have to take what you have and maximize what you have. You can’t compare yourself. Do you have the same tools as everybody else at every single weekend? You don’t know.

“Like you won’t know until you get there and sometimes you don’t and sometimes even if they’re in front of you but you’re finish finishing a fifth with maybe something that shouldn’t be there. It feels good if you pull out a win with a car that’s capable of winning feels really good.

“So, I think it’s just all about maximizing weekends and then really seeing where you’re at in points because if you focus on the points, I don’t think it’ll gonna work very well for you.”

Marcus Ericsson finished practice in second-place, while his Andretti Global teammate Colton Herta rebounded from his crash in qualifying to post the third-fastest time of the session.

Five-time Gateway winner Josef Newgarden was fourth, with Kyle Kirkwood rounding out the top-five fastest.

The remainder of the top-10 went to Alexander Rossi, Conor Daly, Nolan Siegel, David Malukas, and Will Power.

Polesitter Scott McLaughlin was 13^th when all was said and done in practice, followed by defending race winner Scott Dixon in 14^th place. Current points leader Alex Palou came home in 16^th.

The Bommarito Automotive Group 500 is scheduled for 6:00 pm ET and will be televised on USA Network and Peacock.