Pato O’Ward Tag

By INDYCAR BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Scott McLaughlin worked through a bit of road rage and found the fast lane during a late-afternoon traffic jam Friday at Barber Motorsports Park, leading the opening practice for the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix. McLaughlin turned the best lap late in the session, 1 minute, 6.6610 seconds, in the No. 3 Good Ranchers Team Penske Chevrolet. Like most of the 27 drivers in the field, he struggled to find a gap and clean air to let it rip on the 17-turn, 2.3-mile road courseRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Following last week’s open test session at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the drivers shift their focus to Barber Motorsports Park, the final site before “The Month of May” kicks into high gear. Although the race has a new name with Children’s of Alabama replacing Honda as the event title sponsor, the same action and intensity folks love about the road course remains the same. A popular venue amongst drivers and fans, Barber is a venue where some competitors never forget if things fall short. Among thoseRead More

By INDYCAR INDIANAPOLIS – In a career full of success, winning the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge is one of the few boxes Josef Newgarden hasn’t checked. That could change this year, if the first day of the Indy 500 Open Test on Thursday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is any indication. SEE: Test Results Two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Newgarden was the fastest of 33 drivers on the 2.5-mile oval during the 8.5-hour test, turning a top lap of 227.686 mph in the No. 2 Shell Team Penske Chevrolet. Newgarden’s best finishRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor NTT IndyCar Series street races always seem to end with hurt feelings and Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was no different. This time around, it was six-time series champion Scott Dixon and Pato O’Ward that weren’t seeing eye to eye at the end of the day. The problems between the two stemmed from an incident on lap 20 in Turn 8 when O’Ward dove to the inside of Dixon heading into the right-hander, which led to wheel-to-wheel contact that sent Dixon head on intoRead More

By INDYCAR LONG BEACH, Calif. – Kyle Kirkwood earned his first career NTT INDYCAR SERIES pole Saturday, grabbing the NTT P1 Award for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Kirkwood, from Jupiter, Florida, won the top spot for the prestigious Southern California street race with a best time of 1 minute, 6.2878 seconds on his final lap in the Firestone Fast Six in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda. Kirkwood’s previous best starting spot in his NTT INDYCAR SERIES career was fifth in March at the season-opening Firestone Grand PrixRead More

By INDYCAR LONG BEACH, Calif. – It’s only fitting that in Southern California, Pato O’Ward continues to ride a wave. O’Ward led the opening practice Friday for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, turning a top lap of 1 minute, 6.6999 seconds in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary street circuit. SEE: Practice Results “It’s a tight field,” O’Ward said. “Long Beach is always such an intense qualifying. We just kept chipping at it today. We rolled off strong, but we’ve been definitely making adjustments toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor FORT WORTH, Tex. – Thrice as nice. For the third time in his career, Josef Newgarden found himself in Victory Lane at Texas Motor Speedway, holding off a hard-charging Pato O’Ward down the stretch in Sunday’s PPG 375 to earn himself another cowboy hat. In what was one of the most hotly contested races at the 1.5-mile oval in recent years, deciding which driver would come away victorious was up in the air from the time the green flag dropped all the way to the checkered.Read More

By Phillip Schmitz, Staff Writer FORT WORTH, Tex. – For the second straight year, Felix Rosenqvist will lead the field to green in the NTT IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway after scoring the pole for the PPG 375 on Saturday afternoon. The driver of the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet set the fast time early in the session and held off all comers with his two lap average of 220.264 mph ahead of six-time series champion Scott Dixon, who joins him on the front row. “Arrow McLaren just gaveRead More

By Phillip Schmitz, Staff Writer FORT WORTH, Tex. — Team Penske’s Scott McLaughln went fastest in opening practice for the PPG 375 at Texas Motor Speedway with a 223.747 mph average lap. The New Zealand native was followed by the Arrow McLaren duo of Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi on the speed charts. “A little bit bamboozled at the start of the run,” McLaughlin said of practice. “She was slipperier than a pocket full of pudding, you know, on the outside of Turn 1 there. We got through all that kerfuffleRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Close, but no cigar. On a day that featured plenty of chaos, Pato O’Ward kept his nose clean and found himself at the right place at the right time to be in contention for the win in Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, only to have the win snatched from his grasp at the last minute. Running behind leaders Romain Grosjean and Scott McLaughlin, O’Ward cycled into the lead when the two collided and took each other out, setting the stage for what looked toRead More