Pato O’Ward’s faint championship hopes were extinguished with a 25th-place finish in last Sunday’s BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland presented by askROI.
Entering the 15th round of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, O’Ward trailed championship leader Alex Palou by 121 points and needed to outscore him by at least 14 to stay mathematically alive. But an early electrical malfunction ended O’Ward’s day, while Palou’s third-place finish sealed his fourth series championship and third straight title.
“Unfortunately, reliability stood in the way of us maybe making it a little bit more interesting for everyone,” O’Ward said. “Congrats to Alex (Palou). It’s been really an unbelievable season for him.”
Although O’Ward heads into the upcoming Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 on Sunday, Aug. 24 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network) with no championship on the line, he remains proud of what he and the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet team have accomplished this year.
“I’m happy with how my year has gone,” O’Ward said. “It hasn’t been a rocket of starts, but we’ve gotten better as the year has gone on. We’ve pretty much been the best of the rest.
“So, after you see somebody like Alex have his insane year, we’re kind of having a championship season, quote, unquote. But sadly, the guy that’s leading is having an unreal, unexpected year.”
Palou has collected eight wins so far, just two shy of the all-time single-season record set by A.J. Foyt in 1964 and matched by Al Unser in 1970. Palou won five of the opening six races, including a dominant performance in the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
O’Ward’s 2025 campaign began with an 11th-place finish at St. Petersburg. He earned NTT P1 Awards honors at The Thermal Club and led 51 of 65 laps before finishing second to Palou. Then came a disappointing 13th place at Long Beach.
Mexican driver O’Ward arrived at Barber Motorsports Park in early May ranked sixth in the standings, and that’s when things began to click.
Over the next 12 races, O’Ward finished outside the top seven only once, a 17th-place showing June 22 at Road America. That run of consistency vaulted him to second in the standings, making him the only driver still mathematically eligible to challenge Palou entering Portland.
So, what changed?
“There was a pretty big objective to make our bad weekends better,” O’Ward said. “I don’t necessarily think it’s been amazing in that regard. We’ve had some really tough weekends where we’ve just not been anywhere close to where we truly should be, especially when you see where the 10 car (Palou) has been every weekend.
“But it’s showing how we’re just accepting whenever we don’t have it, and we’re executing when we do have it. I think that’s put us in a position to fight.”
A key example came in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear on June 1, where O’Ward surged from 18th to seventh, a strong result for a team that’s struggled on street circuits. He then backed it up with a win in the next street race, the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto in July.
O’Ward looks to finish the season strong. He won last year at the Milwaukee Mile and finished second to Colton Herta at Nashville Superspeedway in the 2024 season finale. Another strong finish could set the table for Arrow McLaren in 2026 perhaps breaking an INDYCAR SERIES streak lasting more than two decades: No team outside of Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske or Andretti Global has won the Astor Challenge Cup since Panther Racing with Sam Hornish Jr. in 2002.
Arrow McLaren came close in 2025 – if not for Palou’s dominance.
“He’s probably in the best form he’s ever been,” O’Ward said. “This is likely the best year he’ll ever have in his life. So, it’s definitely been a cool journey to fight against someone performing at that level.”