Tag: Pato O’Ward

Missing wins adding up for O’Ward

Pato O’Ward says that his efforts to win in 2023 have been unstinting, despite falling short of reaching victory lane. In Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course, the Arrow McLaren ace scored his sixth …

Pato O’Ward says that his efforts to win in 2023 have been unstinting, despite falling short of reaching victory lane.

In Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course, the Arrow McLaren ace scored his sixth top-three finish of the year after starting fourth on the grid, but felt he was at a pace deficit to Graham Rahal and had to be content with beating another Rahal Letterman Lanigan, that of Christian Lundgaard, to take the last step on the podium.

Asked what it would take for him to score a win this year, O’Ward replied: “A fricking win would be great. I’ve been driving my ass off every single race. Like, there is nothing more than I want than to get wins.

“Obviously there’s been little things here and there that have got us out of contention and out of being able to kind of capitalize on that… I’m very pleased with today, very happy with how the team and I attacked because I was playing around with Graham in the warmup, and he was just stronger than me. I know he was. I knew it was going to be a tall ask, just from outright pace, to try and beat them.

“But I was very happy with my car balance. I was very happy with every other call. Yeah, we just got to keep pushing.”

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O’Ward was the highest starter to open the race on primary tires, and while teammate Alexander Rossi went past him, O’Ward was able to stay in the top five and remain in the picture, albeit losing time to leader Rahal. However, he discovered even with fresh alternates, he was only able to maintain his gap to Rahal when the latter took on his set of primaries, rather than make inroads into his lead.

“You were just really fast on blacks,” O’Ward told Rahal. “I was on reds, and I was maintaining. At that point [I] should be catching, [I] shouldn’t be maintaining. When I was on blacks and they were on reds, I was falling like a rock. I was miserable on them.

“I was in the same boat as he was. I had two heat-cycled reds I had to use and a fresh set of reds. I was very pleased to see that even with those two heat cycles, they held up really, really nice. So I was very happy with that.”

Overall, O’Ward said he was satisfied that he and the team had maximized a car that was simply not the fastest out there.

O’Ward managed to beat Lundgaard home but the top two remained tantalizingly out of reach for the Arrow McLaren driver Gavin Baker/Motorsport Images

“Every lap was a push lap for me today… Reminded me a lot of Mid-Ohio this year,” he observed. “But very pleased with today. I thought the team did a phenomenal job on my strategy, in the pits.

“I was very happy with my car balance. We’ve obviously got some catching up to do in an area. Yeah, I’m very happy with what we extracted from our tools today…

“Midway through, they were telling me we were third. Scott [Dixon, winner] and Graham, they were really quick. I mean, I struggled keeping Christian behind. But, yeah, managed it very well.”

Rossi finished the day fifth, while the third McLaren of Felix Rosenqvist suffered a mechanical failure, after running in the top six with his teammates in the opening laps.

Said Rossi: “Today was a good day. I think the biggest deficit we had was that our best Firestone tire, the alternate, was the tire we started on, so we weren’t able to open up as big of a gap on the primaries as we would’ve hoped. That probably cost us a spot or two.

“The biggest win this weekend was finding our feet in qualifying. This year, race pace has always been pretty good, but we have struggled in qualifying. There’s still a gap we need to close to cars in front, but the team has been putting the work in and we still have a couple of races to go.”

Iowa a big chance for O’Ward…if he can keep it clean

Pato O’Ward is a driver on a midwestern mission at this weekend’s Hy-Vee IndyCar doubleheader at Iowa Speedway. The Arrow McLaren leader has had a few wins slip from his grasp in 2023, and as he returns to the site of his last NTT IndyCar Series …

Pato O’Ward is a driver on a midwestern mission at this weekend’s Hy-Vee IndyCar doubleheader at Iowa Speedway. The Arrow McLaren leader has had a few wins slip from his grasp in 2023, and as he returns to the site of his last NTT IndyCar Series triumph, O’Ward’s fixated on completing two clean runs.

The clean part is important. Mistakes have piled up with O’Ward’s No. 5 Chevy this season, and whether they’ve been made by its driver or his brethren who run the car, the championship challenger isn’t loving the fact that he’s reached the one-year anniversary of his most recent win.

“Ultimately, what’s kept us out of victory lane have been mistakes,” O’Ward told RACER. “Whether that is something I’ve done wrong like crashing, or getting hit by someone, or in the pits, there’s been a lot of things that have been hurting us. What’s keeping us from getting a lot of wins is all the little details we can clean up, because getting those details right adds up to those big, big results.

“Coming out of Iowa with no mistakes is what we’re going for, because it absolutely hasn’t been performance. We’ve never been stronger. We’re qualifying really well. We’re racing well, and we’re always in podium contention. But we’ve just got to handle the details because this is a big weekend for us and there’s a lot of points on the table.”

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There’s an urgency to O’Ward’s needs. He’s fifth in the championship due to the four podiums he’s earned to date and seven runs inside the top eight, but he’s also fallen a mile behind Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in the drivers’ standings.

On the positive side, O’Ward’s two points away from taking fourth from Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson and 18 points shy of displacing Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden of Team Penske from third, but he needs 144 points to take the lead from Palou.

With seven races left to run, including the two in Iowa, O’Ward sees an opportunity to carve into the foreboding deficit and keep his title hopes afloat if he can start putting his name in the win column.

“We’ve had our fair share of [bad] luck and Palau has had none,” he said of the Spaniard and his four wins. “And even if he does, they’re never ‘race enders.’ I don’t know how many podiums he had (six), but every almost every podium he’s on, it’s because he’s winning the race. And what’s his worst result? Like, eighth? It’s been a great year where he’s performing and his team doesn’t make any mistakes. They’re just on it.

“But we can also do that. And I believe nobody’s luck lasts forever. There’s plenty of racing to go. If there is a championship where [things] can go sideways in a matter of three weeks, it’s in IndyCar.”

The 24-year-old Mexican is in his element on short ovals like Iowa, where he earned finishes of first and second on In​​dyCar’s return with the doubleheader format in 2022. And with a pair of seconds, a third, and a fourth on the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway oval since 2020, O’Ward is someone for the rest of the field to fear when this weekend’s races go live.

“I am still hunting,” he said. “I’m still in challenge mode. And we’re gonna keep pushing and get fourth place, and third place, and second place in the championship on the way to chasing P1. We’re just gonna keep doing that. Hopefully at the end of the year, we look at it like, ‘Damn, we had a hell of a comeback.’”​

O’Ward leads Palou, Ericsson in first practice at Mid-Ohio

Last year’s polesitter at Mid-Ohio, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, was comfortably faster than his nearest pursuers in opening practice for the Honda Indy 200, ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson. Unlike his fellow …

Last year’s polesitter at Mid-Ohio, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, was comfortably faster than his nearest pursuers in opening practice for the Honda Indy 200, ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson.

Unlike his fellow established aces, two-time Mid-Ohio winner Josef Newgarden went out early with the rookies in this 75-minute session, and on his fifth of six laps, he produced a 1m07.3573s effort in his Team Penske-Chevrolet. That’s an average of 120.682mph around the 2.258-mile 13-turn road course in Lexington, OH.

After 15 minutes, other race winners hit the track, and it was Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren-Chevy who first displaced Newgarden, albeit by just 0.0324s. Defending series champion Will Power had just moved into second when Helio Castroneves spun off exiting Turn 5 and into Turn 6 and stalled on the grass, bringing out the red flag with 49mins still to go.

After the session restarted, the dominant points leader, 2021 champion Alex Palou, hit top spot with a 1m07.3073s in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, while Scott McLaughlin ensured all three Penske drivers were in the top five.

But with 25 minutes to go, it was Christian Lundgaard who vaulted into top spot with a 1m07.2834s on his 17th lap, his Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda a hair quicker than Palou in the first and third sectors.

With less a dozen minutes left, the drivers strapped on their Firestone alternate tires, and O’Ward, who had been oversteering entertainingly on primaries, grabbed P1 with a 1m06.4935 — a 122.250mph lap in his Arrow McLaren. Newgarden also improved but was 0.6466s slower, and was knocked down to third by Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood in his Andretti Autosport entry.

Then the Ganassi cars of Palou and Marcus Ericsson jumped to second and third, while Lundgaard proved his RLL car was quick on the soft tires, too, by moving up to fourth, while Jack Harvey in his RLL machine also entered the top 10.

Behind O’Ward, Palou, Ericsson and Lundgaard, Andretti Autosport’s Kirkwood and Grosjean were fifth and sixth ahead of Penske’s Newgarden and McLaughlin, while Alexander Rossi survived a scary venture over the Turn 1 exit curbs to take ninth ahead of 2020 Mid-Ohio winner Herta.

Power never got a clear lap while his reds were fresh and ended up 14th. His former title rival Ryan Hunter-Reay, in his second race for Ed Carpenter Racing, was around a quarter-second behind teammate Rinus VeeKay, while rookie Agustin Canapino did a great job to be just one tenth behind Juncos Hollinger Racing teammate Callum Ilott.

UP NEXT: Second practice begins Saturday morning at 9:45am ET.

RESULTS

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A strong start: Reactions to and lessons from ‘100 Days To Indy’

IndyCar’s long-awaited entry into the world of modern motor racing docuseries content reached its conclusion earlier this month when the finale of the six-part “100 Days To Indy” project aired on The CW. Filmed and produced in partnership between …

IndyCar’s long-awaited entry into the world of modern motor racing docuseries content reached its conclusion earlier this month when the finale of the six-part “100 Days To Indy” project aired on The CW.

Filmed and produced in partnership between VICE Media, The CW, and Penske Entertainment, 100 Days To Indy arrived four years after the ground-breaking Formula 1 docuseries “Drive To Survive” first appeared on Netflix in 2019. Devised as a project with a narrower scope than the season-long Drive To Survive series, 100 Days To Indy focused on pre-season activities through the first six races of the 17-race 2023 calendar, ramping up to its centerpiece, the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 held on May 28.

Like Drive To Survive — now in its fifth season — which set the standard for fan engagement and has been credited globally for creating legions of new F1 fans who learned about the championship after consuming DTS via the streaming giant, IndyCar and its parent company Penske Entertainment sought to achieve the same effect with 100 Days To Indy, albeit several years later than desired, in a bid to develop new and younger fans.

“I thought they did an excellent job of finding and telling stories,” Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles told RACER. “And in a particularly challenging format where they really didn’t have a lot of time, had to edit as they went, as opposed to put everything in the can and then go back months later and decide what survives. They quickly got a handle on many of the personalities in the sport, and did a great job of telling the stories. We didn’t ask them to be politically correct. We wanted them to tell the stories they thought were most compelling, and so the cast of characters ended up being pretty broad, which I think was helpful.”

According to ShowBuzzDaily.com, Episode 6 of 100 Days To Indy — the payoff to the buildup to the Indy 500 won by Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden in a dramatic one-lap battle with 2022 Indy winner Marcus Ericsson — attracted 186,000 viewers on The CW, the country’s fifth-largest television network.

Episode 1, run on the same April 27 night as the NFL draft, had more viewers than the finale, with ShowBuzzDaily reporting an audience of 189,000. Episode 2 on May 4 showed promise with an increase to 210,000 viewers. Episode 3 on May 11 continued the upward trend with a rise to 214,000, but Episode 4 on May 18 took a sharp and surprising downward turn with just 142,000 viewers.

Episode 5, featuring qualifying and the harrowing crash caused by Katherine Legge that took Stefan Wilson out of the event and inserted the bumped Graham Rahal into the field, achieved a series high of 220,000 viewers on May 25, and after a week’s pause, the Indy 500 grand finale aired and delivered the audience of 186,000.

Altogether, the six episodes generated 1,161,000 viewers during their premieres on The CW, averaging 193,500 views per episode. For the sake of comparison, the Detroit Grand Prix — the most recent IndyCar race aired live on NBC — was seen by a nearly identical audience of 1,047,000 people. Sunday’s Road America IndyCar race, shown on NBC cable affiliate USA Network, attracted 385,000 viewers.

Based on the Nielsen ratings information provided for each CW debut, 100 Days was not burdened with excessive viewership. But with all the other airings factored in, including reruns on The CW, repurposing on VICE’s cable channel one week after each premiere, and consumption via The CW’s streaming app, Miles says each episode generated a larger audience that left the series feeling pleased with the project’s outcome.

“We didn’t have any set benchmark for ‘above this number is a success and below is not,’” he explained. “We’re very pleased with the cumulative audience. We averaged over 500,000 viewers per episode, and it’s important to note that those numbers keep growing. So the numbers will keep piling up, and I don’t know how high they’ll get, but if you look at north of 500,000 per [episode], and you’ve got 500,000 times six, that’s over 3 million. That’s a nice addition to our total number of eyeballs that would normally watch just the races.”

100 Days To Indy targeted an audience beyond IndyCar’s traditional fan base. Motorsport Images

With IndyCar’s primary demographic composed of males near or over the age of 60, 100 Days To Indy was meant to do far more than entertain the series’ existing fan base. Introducing the grandchildren of IndyCar’s primary followers to the series was the project’s top priority, and with the data in hand, a series representative told RACER that “more than half of the viewership for the show was composed of core CW/VICE audience members,” and “this is a younger audience with very little to no previous exposure to IndyCar.”

Nielsen data for the six network premieres on The CW showed 100 Days To Indy had the lowest share of men and women watching between age 18-49, which suggests the gains in building a more youthful demographic through the series were not found on the network, but rather, through users of The CW’s app and reruns on VICE’s cable channel.

“The audience was much younger than our typical race audience,” Miles said. “We’re still waiting for final numbers, but I believe it’s going to be something like 25 percent of the people who saw us first on The CW tuned into one or more IndyCar races. It’s clearly a nice crossover. I think it made the paddock happy. And I thought it was very, very positive and gave us a lot of momentum in the first half of the year.”

IndyCar also says an immediate impact was made within the 4.716 million viewers who tuned into NBC to watch the Indy 500.

“The show added up to a quarter of a million viewers to the Indy 500 broadcast,” the series’ spokesperson noted. “These are individuals who found 100 Days To Indy before finding IndyCar or the Indy 500.”

Currently restricted to viewing in North America, the next step for Season 1 of 100 Days To Indy is to make it available to the rest of the world.

“It will at some point have international distribution,” Miles said. “VICE has the rights to distribute it internationally. They’re working hard on that and believe that they’re quite likely to get an international partner before long. So they told me it’s not unusual, they weren’t surprised by the notion that it would air first in the States, that streaming services would watch to see what happens.

“It’s conceivable that there could be another platform involved, particularly if it is part of making an international deal. I don’t know how probable that is, but I do think it’s quite likely that international distribution will occur. And even here in the States people continue to go back, as is often the case with series that are streamed — they’ll go back and binge in multiple sittings.”

Tracking 100 Days To Indy’s influence on the Twitter and Instagram accounts for the series, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and some of the key drivers involved in the six episodes offered another window into whether the series was delivering new followers.

At the moment Episode 1 began at 9pm ET on April 27, IndyCar had 458,005 followers on Twitter (T) and 488,514 on Instagram (IG). Twenty-four hours later, +109 (T) and +258 (IG) were recorded, and 48 hours later, +281 (T) and +992 (IG) were seen. One week later at the 9pm start of Episode 2, gains of +1265 (T) and +4001 (IG) were made. Just over one week after the series was completed, IndyCar’s Twitter followers had reached 468,432, +10,427, a 2.2-percent rise from Episode 1.

Instagram is where the greatest inroads were made, with 524,776 followers, 36,262 more than at the series’ onset, up 6.9 percent over its April 27 baseline. For IMS, +3357 (T) and +9604 (IG) were its gains during the project, and among drivers, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward — who already serves as IndyCar’s most popular driver — led his rivals with +6455 (T) and +18,080 (IG).

Social media provided further opportunity for the likes of Pato O’Ward to spread the word about 100 Days To Indy. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

From a standpoint of percentages, Indy 500 winner Newgarden led all drivers, due in large part to his victory at the world’s largest single-day sporting event. As one of two primary characters spotlighted in Episode 1, Newgarden had a modest bump in followers one week after the series debuted with +152 (T) and +246 (IG), but after the Indy 500 and the project’s finale, he’d achieved a 5.6-percent gain in Twitter followers (+5533) and a sizable 10.9-percent spike on Instagram (+14,237).

Benchmarking the growth of Colton Herta’s social media accounts after the Andretti Autosport driver was featured in Episode 2 also revealed the fickle nature of assigning newfound interest created by 100 Days To Indy to the series’ drivers.

Herta opened Episode 2 with 42,704 Twitter followers and 64,013 on Instagram, and at the same post-docuseries date used to measure the increases for IndyCar, IMS, O’Ward, and Newgarden, Herta was +1632 (T) and +1971 (IG) over the same period. Scott McLaughlin, Newgarden’s Team Penske teammate and co-star of Episode 1, fared slightly better, but like Herta, his social media increases of +2932 (T) and +2497 (IG) were among the lowest percentages — +3.5-percent (T) and +1.6-percent (IG) of those who were tracked.

Altogether, the series, its most popular driver and its newest Indy 500 winner received the largest number of new followers during 100 Days To Indy’s run.

Looking to 2024, Miles is confident a second season of 100 Days To Indy will go into production.

“I think it’s very likely that a Season 2 of 100 Days To Indy will be made and released,” he said in a separate interview with RACER.

Based on what the stars of Season 1 had to say after the project ran its course, many have the same opinion on what needs to be carried over into a Season 2, while views begin to vary on the subject of what needs to change.

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So near, but so far for Arrow McLaren at Indy

“Last year, we were like $1 short, and this year, we had $1 in our pocket; we were cruising,” McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown told RACER after his four-car Indy 500 program flexed its muscles and led 76 of 200 laps before its leading contenders Pato …

“Last year, we were like $1 short, and this year, we had $1 in our pocket; we were cruising,” McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown told RACER after his four-car Indy 500 program flexed its muscles and led 76 of 200 laps before its leading contenders Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist crashed on their own.

Arrow McLaren’s top performer on the day was a visibly frustrated Alexander Rossi, who placed fifth, and behind him, in his Indy 500 farewell, Tony Kanaan had an average day, crossing the finish line in 15th. Minus Rosenqvist’s crash on lap 183 and O’Ward’s overambitious attempt to take the lead from Marcus Ericsson on lap 192, Brown and the Chevy-powered team might have had a say in who won the race.

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“We had a fuel issue on Pato’s car that ended up not becoming an issue at the end, but I think we had those two cars, and Rossi there or thereabouts, but we didn’t get it done,” Brown added. “But I think the upside is we had the cars to win. We were flying and they were having fun. It was like, ‘You lead for a few laps, then you lead for a few laps.’

“They were so hooked up. The results are disappointing, but other than that, what an awesome Indy 500. We were fast and had two cars that were on for the win, and Rossi was right there too.

Brown applauded his team for their year-to-year improvement, led by the engineering-first structure overseen by Gavin Ward.

“Couldn’t be happier,” he said. “We are a threat to win every weekend with multiple cars that are threatening for the championship. It wasn’t a good points day for us, but I couldn’t be happier. I think Gavin and the whole team have stepped up. There were definitely a better team than we were last year.”

O’Ward leads Lundgaard in opening Indy GP practice

Pato O’Ward fired his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevy to the top of the list in the opening practice session for the Indianapolis Grand Prix, as most of the 27-deep field of drivers completed qualifying simulation runs at the end of the 75-minute outing. …

Pato O’Ward fired his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevy to the top of the list in the opening practice session for the Indianapolis Grand Prix, as most of the 27-deep field of drivers completed qualifying simulation runs at the end of the 75-minute outing.

Prior to O’Ward’s posting of a 1m09.4981s lap, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team flexed its collective muscles for the first time this season as Jack Harvey and Christian Lundgaard recorded laps that stood atop the session at various points in the overcast morning.

Once the checkered flag waved, it was Lundgaard and the No. 45 Honda that was closest to O’Ward, missing just 0.0007s in the end. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou was also fast, holding third with a 1m09.5213s in the No. 10 Honda. Team Penske also weighed in with its most recent winner, Scott McLaughlin, who claimed fourth in the No. 3 Chevy with a 1m09.5465s, and RLL’s Harvey wasn’t far behind in fifth, turning a 1m09.5976s lap in the No. 30 Honda. O’Ward’s teammate Felix Rosenqvist completed the top six with a 1m09.7152s run in the No. 6 Chevy.

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Adversity was kept to a minimum on this busy day where a second practice session and qualifying are on the horizon. Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta suffered a fire on the left side of the No. 26 Honda’s engine bay during his installation lap; the problem was rectified with four minutes left in the session, which allowed Herta to turn another installation lap before pitting the have the rear of the car inspected.

Josef Newgarden attempted to pull away from pit lane to perform his qualifying simulation, but a clutch issue left him stuck on pit lane. Other than a few instances where drivers touched the wall under braking, there were no incidents or red flags.

UP NEXT: FP2, 1pm ET.

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IndyCar and its drivers call out Long Beach social media abuse

Ranging from unkind words to death threats, more than 1500 comments were aimed at Callum Ilott and his loved ones on social media after he and teammate Agustin Canapino found themselves in an unfortunate on-track sequence during Sunday’s Long Beach …

Ranging from unkind words to death threats, more than 1500 comments were aimed at Callum Ilott and his loved ones on social media after he and teammate Agustin Canapino found themselves in an unfortunate on-track sequence during Sunday’s Long Beach Grand Prix.

Similar levels of online abuse were also produced after a contentious incident between Pato O’Ward and Scott Dixon, which inadvertently created the situation between Ilott and Canapino.

After losing a lap when he hit the wall and broke a wheel and flattened a tire, Ilott used the Lap 20 caution for contact between O’Ward and Dixon to stay out and unlap himself as the rest of the field dove into the pits for service. The only outlier in that scenario was Juncos Hollinger Racing rookie Canapino, who was left out and inherited the lead.

Having pitted for new tires just prior to the race returning to green, Ilott was released from the pits and emerged directly in front Canapino who led the field into Turn 1. Back on the tail end of the lead lap, but with cold tires limiting his immediate pace, the Briton held up the Argentinian and defended his position to avoid going down a lap, and it’s here where the situation began to rapidly devolve online.

Moments later, contact with the Turn 5 wall damaged Canapino’s car and he was forced to pit and seek repairs, and with an enraged fan base aiming its anger at Ilott, a steady wave of toxicity was unleashed on him which continued into Monday.

Contrasting views on the incident responsibility between Arrow McLaren’s O’Ward and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dixon where the New Zealander blamed the Mexican for the clash and O’Ward refused to accept blame for the contretemps led to more ugliness on social media.

Early in the day, Ilott took aim at Argentinian IndyCar commentator Martin Ponte, who he believes is responsible for the torrent of hatred after blaming him for Canapino’s race-altering dramas.

By Monday evening, the NTT IndyCar Series weighed in with a message of its own in an attempt to cool matters.

Soon after, O’Ward took to social media to ask for a restoration of civility in messages crafted in English and Spanish.

IndyCar’s passionate audience has rarely strayed into the darker side of social media behavior, making the escalating nature of what’s taken place since Sunday a new experience for the series owned by Penske Entertainment.

O’Ward stays ahead in chaotic second Long Beach IndyCar practice

Pato O’Ward laid down a marker ahead of qualifying for this weekend’s NTT IndyCar Series race in Long Beach by topping a bizarre Saturday morning practice session. Teams and drivers were forced to adjust on the fly as it became apparent that an …

Pato O’Ward laid down a marker ahead of qualifying for this weekend’s NTT IndyCar Series race in Long Beach by topping a bizarre Saturday morning practice session.

Teams and drivers were forced to adjust on the fly as it became apparent that an additional curb had sprouted overnight near the exit of Turn 5. The addition of the curb was not communicated to IndyCar or the teams beforehand, and the first indication that it was there came when Callum Ilott hit it and launched into the outside wall. The second indication came just a couple of minutes after Ilott’s car had been retrieved when Rinus VeeKay did exactly the same thing.

“Bottomed pretty hard,” VeeKay said over the radio immediately after the No. 21 ECR Chevrolet’s impact. “I feel like they almost moved the curbing — did they change anything?”

VeeKay escaped with minimal damage and was able to rejoin the session, but Ilott’s morning ended as soon as the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet pounded the wall.

“I was doing the same line yesterday and it was fine,” he said. “I don’t know. If they changed something and didn’t tell us, but that was strange. I didn’t understand what happened other than I took off when I hit the curb.

“If they did (change anything) and they didn’t tell us then they can pay for the damage, because that’s a joke.”

It later transpired that the curb in question had been in place for the track walk on Thursday, but then sustained damage during an IMSA session on Friday and was removed before IndyCar’s practice session later in the afternoon. It was then restored overnight, but it was not deemed necessary to inform the series because the curbing was considered to be a repair rather than a modification.

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As news of the change filtered through the field, drivers initially took a far more cautious approach into Turn 5 before gradually working the curb into their new lines.

With the two curb-induced reds out of the way, the rest of the session passed with nothing more serious than a few harmless lock-ups and spins, and driver concerns instead moved onto trying to find some clear track for a qualifying simulation on the alternate tires.

This caused a few near-misses at the hairpin — one almost took out two Andretti drivers when Kyle Kirkwood checked up hard to avoid rear-ending Romain Grosjean, and then triggered an accordion effect behind him as cars swerved to avoid a pile-up. Later, Kirkwood found himself on a receiving end of a hurry-up message at the same spot in the form of a tap in the rear from Will Power.

O’Ward’s best came during the final scramble on the green tires, and beat closest rival Kirkwood by just 0.0167s — a far cry from the 0.2s advantage that the Mexican had over the field on Friday.

Grosjean was third fastest, another 0.04s down on Kirkwood, while Herta continued a solid morning for Andretti by finishing fourth fastest.

“The session went pretty well for all of us,” Grosjean said. “We’ve got a strong package. I think the track temperature is going to change for qualifying so we have to keep an eye on that, but I think we have a strong car.”

Scott McLaughlin rounded out the top five, bringing Team Penske into the picture for the first time this weekend after all three of the team’s cars struggled to post a representative time on Friday due to traffic.

UP NEXT: Qualifying at 3:05pm

RESULTS

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O’Ward continues blitzing IndyCar field in Long Beach first practice

NTT IndyCar Series points leader Pato O’Ward carried his early-season form into the opening practice session on the streets of Long Beach on Friday. On an afternoon where the field spent the 75-minute session trading hundredths of a second, O’Ward …

NTT IndyCar Series points leader Pato O’Ward carried his early-season form into the opening practice session on the streets of Long Beach on Friday.

On an afternoon where the field spent the 75-minute session trading hundredths of a second, O’Ward popped up in the final three minutes with a 1m06.6999s in the No.5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet that shaded the rest of the pack by more than 0.2s. Scott Dixon, who also kept his powder dry until the last couple of minutes, came closest with a 1m06.9649s.

“We just kept chipping at it,” O’Ward said. “We rolled off strong, but we’ve been making adjustments to get it a bit more in the window, and so far it’s good. We’re going to look into it and see where we can make improvements, but I think we’re in good shape for tomorrow. It’s all about executing; it’s going to be tough.”

Prior to claiming the top spot on the timing screens, the standout moment in O’Ward’s session had been a massive lock-up after catching a bump where new and old asphalt meet at Turn 8 and flat-spotting the heck out of his right-front tire.

He was hardly alone in that regard: True to Long Beach form, the session was peppered with incidents, although unusually almost none of them resulted in car damage. The sole exception was Josef Newgarden, who grated a few layers of carbon fiber off the left edge of his floor with a brush against the wall, but even then he was able to complete the bulk of the session after the damage was patched up with some tape.

“I about did that four or five times,” he said. “Some of the settings we started with were probably aggressive. I’m not too stressed out about it for session one, but it would have been ideal not to ruin that first set of tires. We didn’t want to get bad data (so we parked a few minutes early); we just wanted to be conservative.”

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Up front, Colton Herta enjoyed a brief spell at the top before eventually being shuffled back to third-fastest in the No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda, just 0.01s down on Dixon’s time.

“It’s sweet,” Herta said. “Car feels great; everything feels fantastic.”

Marcus Ericsson held the top spot for the majority of the afternoon before ultimately finishing fourth-fastest, leaving Romain Grosjean to round out the top five.

On a day when the top of the screens were largely dominated by Honda, Arrow McLaren backed up O’Ward’s P1 with Alexander Rossi in seventh and Rosenqvist ninth-fastest. Juncos Hollinger continued to punch above its weight with Callum Ilott finishing up eighth-fastest, while Rahal Letterman Lanigan had a solid start with Christian Lundgaard 10th-fastest, Jack Harvey 12th-fastest, and Graham Rahal running well inside the top 10 for most of the session before fading back to 16th as the cars around him switched to their second sets of Firestones.

The only red flag of the session came with just under half an hour left on the clock when Helio Castroneves and Agustin Canapino stalled at different points on the track. Both were rescued quickly, and practice returned to green after just a couple of minutes.

RESULTS

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Newgarden takes last shot in Texas shootout

There was Pato O’Ward, and then there was everyone else taking part in the NTT IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway who were powerless to stop the Arrow McLaren driver who lapped up to second place by lap 161 of the 250-lap PPG 375 event. But …

There was Pato O’Ward, and then there was everyone else taking part in the NTT IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway who were powerless to stop the Arrow McLaren driver who lapped up to second place by lap 161 of the 250-lap PPG 375 event. But leading strong and leading the last lap are two different things.

More cautions followed, and with a late restart on lap 239 and a wild scramble to the checkered flag, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden fired past the McLaren driver and went on the secure back-to-back victories at TMS in the No. 2 Chevy after front-running contender Romain Grosjean crashed his Andretti Autosport Honda on lap 249 and the breathtaking race finished under yellow.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, who fought his way past O’Ward and Newgarden at various points to lead in the latter half of the race, settled for third in the No. 10 Honda.

“I don’t know what else to say but our car was fast​,” Newgarden said​. ​
“​Pato was walking away but we got the tuning back and we were in the position (to win) in the end. We are on the board. We weren’t on the board in St. Pete, but we are on the board.”

If there was a consolation prize for O’Ward, it’s his takeover of the championship lead on the strength of a pair of second-place runs to open the season.

“It’s been a hell of a start to the championship, but it’s a long year,” he said.

Behind Palou, emerging oval specialist David Malukas put on another show as he survived a late gaffe — failing to pit during a caution, which was rectified when another crash quickly slowed the field and allowed him to dash in for fuel and tires — to challenge the podium runners before claiming fourth in his No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports Honda.

CGR’s Scott Dixon finished fifth during a busy day moving forwards and backwards in the No. 9 Honda after starting second, and Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was the biggest riser, improving from 15th to sixth.

Among the crazy three- and four-wide mome​​nts during the race, one of the smallest teams with two of the least experienced oval racers in Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Callum Ilott (P9) and rookie Augustin Canapino (P12) ran ahead and finished ahead of IndyCar champions and Indy 500 winners.

Of those who left TMS in a state of disappointment, Penske’s Will Power fell from eighth to 16th, losing a wheel during one pit stop during a day where his car wasn’t overly competitive. Graham Rahal’s crash — an innocent bystander when Devlin DeFrancesco crashed in front of him — was the worst part of a forgettable weekend for his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team as his stablemates Jack Harvey (P18) and Christian Lundgaard (P19) never factored.

The PPG 375 had elements of an old IRL race during certain stages with swarms of drivers passing high and low — sometimes with tires dipped onto the grass — and wheel-banging moments among the leaders as they went full throttle without mercy.

AS IT HAPPENED

Polesitter Felix Rosenqvist led the field into Turn 1 and it lasted one lap as Scott Dixon swept by the next time around. Dixon was passed for the lead on the next lap by Josef Newgarden as Rosenqvist fell to P5. Dixon took the lead back from Newgarden the following lap as close running was the early order of the day.

Lap 9 saw Alex Palou demote Rosenqvist to P6 and the next lap, Pato O’Ward took P2 from Dixon who fell to fourth. Lap 15 saw Newgarden leading O’Ward, Palou, Dixon, Rosenqvist, and Alexander Rossi in P6.

By lap 30, Newgarden held 0.9s over O’Ward as drivers started to stretch out as they went beyond the halfway point in their opening stint. Lapping began on the 33rd tour as Christian Lundgaard and Conor Daly.

The first caution of the race was triggered by Takuma Sato who crashed exiting Turn 2 on lap 49. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver was uninjured after sliding up into the wall and mangling the No. 11 Honda’s suspension.

“I was going too high and got into the gray,” Sato said of his crash.

The first round of pit stops on lap 52 went smoothly, barring a crash between Rossi and Kyle Kirkwood, which bent the front suspension on Rossi’s car, as Kirkwood went from the outside lane to his pit stall — rather than from the inside lane — and drove across the front of Rossi’s car as he was leaving the pits. There was no apparent damage to Kirkwood’s car, but the specter of a penalty was looming.

The lap 61 restart saw Newgarden lead into Turn 1 but Palou soon went to the high side and fought hard for multiple laps before settling for second. IndyCar then announced Rossi, not Kirkwood, would receive a drive-through penalty for the contact.

Palou finally got past Newgarden on lap 67 as Romain Grosjean began hassling O’Ward in P3. Newgarden retook the lead on lap 71. O’Ward took P2 from Palou on lap 75 and the running order was Newgarden, O’Ward, Palou, Grosjean, Dixon, and the surging Colton Herta in P6.

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Lap 95 and leader Newgarden laps teammate Will Power in P18. Kirkwood pits on lap 100 and parks his car with a suspected mechanical issue. Leaders are Newgarden, O’Ward, Grosjean, Dixon, Palou, and Herta in P6.

“We had a rear-right upright failure. It’s in meltdown phase right now,” Kirkwood said.

Lap 110 and Newgarden pits as O’Ward stays out. Palou and O’Ward and Dixon and Grosjean, among others, follow on lap 115.

With the field cycled through, Newgarden’s early stop helped to draw out a bigger lead over O’Ward but O’Ward trimmed the gap down with aggressive passing in traffic. At the halfway point, it was Newgarden, O’Ward, Grosjean, Dixon, Palou, and McLaughlin.

Lap 130 saw O’Ward execute a daring pass in Turn 2 to take the lead. Lap 148 and O’Ward has lapped up through P7 and is holding a giant 5.2s lead over Newgarden.

Lap 150 and it’s O’Ward, Newgarden, Grosjean, Dixon, Palou and Herta in P6. Lap 151 and O’Ward laps Dixon, leaving only four cars on the lead lap. Lap 157 and the gap to Newgarden is 6.7s.

Lap 161 and O’Ward has lapped Grosjean, leaving Newgarden — 7.5s back — as the only other driver on the lead lap. Incredible.

Lap 165 and Newgarden pits. O’Ward follows on lap 169.

Lap 177 and it’s O’Ward by 5.8s over Newgarden, followed by Palou, Grosjean, Dixon, and David Malukas in P6. All behind Newgarden remain a lap down.

Caution on lap 179 as Rosenqvist, exiting the pits, crashed in Turn 4, tagging the rear of the car against the outside wall. He was uninjured in the incident.

Lap 183 and O’Ward and Newgarden pit. Newgarden returns on lap 188 under caution to top up his tank as most drivers will need to save fuel to make it to the finish.

The Lap 194 restart saw O’Ward lead into Turn 1 and Newgarden challenge around the opening corners before falling back to P2 and that’s just what Palou needed to blow by and take the lead. Lap 199 and Newgarden takes the lead from Palou as Malukas holds third.

Lap 200 and the leaders are Newgarden, Palou, O’Ward, Grosjean, Malukas and Herta in P6. Lap 204 and it’s Newgarden followed by Herta and then Herta goes by for the lead as fuel saving is dictating their desire to run at the front.

Lap 209 and Palou is back to the lead ahead of O’Ward, Newgarden, Grosjean, Herta, and Dixon in P6.

The third caution was required on lap 211 after Sting Ray Robb made hard contact exiting Turn 2. Robb said he was OK, but “got his bell rung.” Fuel saving is no longer an issue.

Lap 214 and Palou stays out while O’Ward and Newgarden pits.

The Lap 219 restart featured Palou leading Grosjean, Herta, Dixon, O’Ward, and Dixon in P6.

Lap 221 and Grosjean takes the lead as O’Ward goes around him and Palou for the lead on lap 222.

Fourth caution flies on Lap 224 as Graham Rahal and Devlin DeFrancesco make contact in Turn 3. After understeering into the Turn 2 wall, DeFrancesco drove towards the pits but slid up from the apron into Rahal’s path in Turn 3 which sent Rahal’s car flying before coming down and hitting the wall. Both drivers appeared to be uninjured.

Lap 227 and Grosjean and Dixon pit.

The lap 239 restart featured O’Ward leading Palou, Newgarden, Herta, Malukas, and Scott McLaughlin in P6. Palou takes the lead entering Turn 3. lap 241 and Newgarden takes P2 from O’Ward. Lap 243 and Newgarden takes P1 from Palou and O’Ward challenges him for the lead. Malukas takes P3 from Palou.

Lap 247 and Palou is up to P3 as O’Ward chases Newgarden for the lead. Lap 249 and Grosjean crashes, cementing the win for Newgarden ahead of O’Ward, Palou, Malukas, Dixon, and McLaughlin.

RESULTS