Pato O’Ward Tag

By INDYCAR DETROIT – Pato O’Ward took the NTT INDYCAR SERIES points lead with a drive full of championship-caliber mettle, passing Josef Newgarden with three laps remaining to win the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit Race 2 on Sunday at Belle Isle Park. O’Ward, 22, became the first two-time winner this season in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES after the first seven races opened with different winners. He also won the XPEL 375 on May 2 at Texas Motor Speedway. LINK: Official Results Mexican driver O’Ward, who started 16th, powered away from two-time seriesRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer For the second straight day, Team Penske left the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix heartbroken. Yesterday it was Will Power’s car not firing up after the red flag was lifted. Today, it was Josef Newgarden’s rear tire wear playing a role on finishing second after leading the first 67 laps. “Sad. Just pretty sad,” said Newgarden. “It’s hard not to be disappointed. We had the car to beat, but the cautions (came out) when we didn’t need them. Wrong tires when we didn’t need them.” Right outRead More

By INDYCAR DETROIT – In one of the most unpredictable NTT INDYCAR SERIES seasons ever, Marcus Ericsson pulled off one of the more improbable victories in recent memory in Race 1 of the Chevrolet Dual at Detroit to earn his first career series victory. Ericsson held off Rinus VeeKay and Pato O’Ward in a three-lap dash to the checkered flag after the second red flag of the event. Ericsson was in second place in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing Honda when cars entered pit road for the red-flagRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – Five races into the NTT IndyCar Series campaign, Arrow McLaren SP’s No. 7 team have struggled. This isn’t new for this particular squad. Last year, Oliver Askew was barely hanging onto the top-20 in points. This year, more of the same with Felix Rosenqvist. Only difference is that the Swede racer hasn’t quite sealed the deal. The pace has been there, but not the ideal results compared to last year. He was ninth in points after five races with Chip Ganassi Racing. PatoRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – It was the Honda show during Fast Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Whether it’s single-lap or a four-lap average, they ruled the speed charts. The stranglehold was strong that only three Chevrolet drivers cracked the top-10 on the four-lap average. One of the three also was the lone man who’s one-lap speed made the top-10. That guy was Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward. The XPEL 375 winner was sixth fastest in single-lap speed at 232.034 mph with his four-lap average of 231.522 mphRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The Month of May has finally arrived at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. While some aspects of what makes Indy special will look different, but the NTT IndyCar Series are ready to put on a show at “The Racing Capital of the World.” For the first time this season, we’ll see more than 24 entries on the grid. There’ll be extra entries from Arrow McLaren SP and AJ Foyt Racing, driven by Juan Pablo Montoya and Charlie Kimball respectively. In total, 26 cars are taking the greenRead More

By INDYCAR FORT WORTH, Texas – Pato O’Ward’s time is now. O’Ward broke through for his first career NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, winning the XPEL 375 on Sunday evening at Texas Motor Speedway. O’Ward, who started fourth, passed two-time series champion Josef Newgarden with 24 laps remaining in the 248-lap race and pulled away to a 1.2443-second victory over Newgarden’s No. 2 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet. The win came after five top-three finishes – including three as runner-up – since O’Ward became aRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer There wasn’t a Texas-sized sweep for NTT IndyCar Series points leader Scott Dixon, who finished fourth in Sunday’s XPEL 375. Right out of the gate, it appeared Saturday’s race winner would have another dominant afternoon as he was in a league of his own early on. Dixon ended up leading a race-high 163 of 248 laps, but the second half painted a different tale. As a couple of determined racers in Graham Rahal and Pato O’Ward certainly made things difficult for the six-time champion. MostRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Pato O’Ward had his work cut out for during Saturday’s Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, but excelled under pressure. After rolling off 11th due to the starting lineup being determined via entrant points, O’Ward ended the 212-lap event in third. On an evening all about the two New Zealanders (Scott Dixon and Scott McLaughlin) who finished ahead of him, O’Ward put on an encouraging run. This moved him up from 11th to fourth in points, trailing Dixon by 38 points heading into tomorrow’s XPELRead More

By INDYCAR FORT WORTH, Texas – Scott Dixon schooled the rest of the Genesys 300 field in an oval-racing clinic Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway, leading a race-record 206 of 212 laps for his first victory of the 2021 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season. Dixon drove the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to victory by .2646 of a second over fellow New Zealand native Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet, who was racing on an oval for the first time. Pato O’Ward finished thirdRead More