Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward did not seem pleased following the Indy 500. The Mexican driver was promoted to P3 after runner-up Marcus Ericsson received a penalty for a technical violation.
O’Ward expressed frustration with another Indy 500 weekend missing the top step. He has placed in the top six at all but one of his Indy 500 appearances.
“We seem to have to have every single result in the top five here in all my Indy 500 starts except for the most important one.
“I think we just needed maybe one more restart or one more pit stop to get a couple cars to at least just have a chance.”
O’Ward commends Palou’s dominant IndyCar performance
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou took his first oval win at the Indy 500, securing five out of six races wins in the current IndyCar season. O’Ward commented to FOX on Palou’s unprecedented season.
“Congratulations to Alex [Palou]. Got to get on whatever he’s been eating or sleeping on because he’s in a run that I’ve never seen before. I don’t think everyone anyone in this series have ever seen before maybe in 50 years. So, it’s impressive what they’ve done.
Ericsson “choked” Indy 500 win, according to O’Ward
The Arrow McLaren driver did not hold back when speaking about his thoughts on the race. O’Ward criticized Andretti driver Marcus Ericsson for allowing Palou to pass him near the end of the race.
“Pretty crap race I would say. The switcheroo was for the last position of the race and Ericsson kind of choked there and let Palou by and just … had to pedal it there.
“I don’t think it’s a finish anybody here would have wanted to see.”
O’Ward went on to criticize the racing at the Indy 500. He claimed poor restarts affected the quality of the racing.
“I just feel like there was a bunch of non-experience in the front of the restarts and some of those restarts were pathetic. Those were not of the level that we should be seeing at the Indy 500. It just felt like we were playing roulette in a casino and picking outside or inside and just depending on what everyone else was choosing you either got screwed or you made like 10 positions.”
Arrow McLaren’s performance at the Indy 500
Overall, the weekend went well for the papaya team. Teammate Christian Lundgaard finished P7 after dropping several positions at the beginning of the race. Rookie Nolan Siegel completed his first Indy 500. Unfortunately, a last-lap crash ended his race prematurely in P13.
O’Ward finished the race P4 on-track at the Indy 500. He described some of the difficulties his team had with trying to move through the field.
“We got hosed there a couple times. But we made it back up a little bit after being a bit more in the middle. I fought my way as hard as I could. I really did. So, that’s all you can do sometimes.”
O’Ward currently sits P2 in the IndyCar championship, 112 points shy of Palou.
