O’Ward charges to win, dedicates it to injured teammate

DETROIT >> Pato O’Ward closed an emotional weekend for Arrow McLaren SP by becoming IndyCar’s first repeat winner of the season with a victory dedicated to his injured teammate.

Felix Rosenqvist was injured in a violent crash in the first race of the doubleheader weekend and hospitalized overnight. O’Ward called his teammate Sunday morning and promised to win the second race for him.

“I’m a man of my word, I wanted to get it done for him,” O’Ward said. “I truly wanted to get it because (Saturday) was very mixed emotions. I consider Felix very close, and it’s not a cool feeling to see that.”

Making good on his promise required a masterful drive in which the 22-year-old from Mexico restarted fifth on the final restart with seven laps remaining in a race completely dominated by pole sitter Josef Newgarden.

O’Ward picked off Graham Rahal in the first turn, then Alex Palou in the second turn. Two down, two to go. He next caught Colton Herta, leaving only two-time IndyCar champion Newgarden in his sight. O’Ward caught him in turn 7 with a little over two laps to go and Newgarden tried to use his experience to run O’Ward down to the marbles.

“He knew where to put me in order for me not to be able to get him, but I didn’t move,” O’Ward said.

Wheel to wheel they battled and the cars even touched. “I think it makes it more exciting whenever there’s a little rubbin’,” O’Ward said with a smile.

He completed the pass and drove away to beat Newgarden by 6.7595 seconds, confident he never crossed the line between clean racing and aggressively chasing a win and the IndyCar championship.

“In my head, the two guys that I’m fighting the championship with are in front of me, and I was not going to be pleased if we ended behind them,” O’Ward said. “So if I had the chance I was going to strike. I just had to make sure every strike wasn’t like, ‘Oh, am I going to get it?’ It had to be ‘Boom, definite.’ Once you’re on the inside, it’s yours. I felt like I did it very clean.”

O’Ward, who earned his first career victory last month, took a one point lead over Palou in the championship standings. He has now won on an oval and a street course, and he finished third Saturday for two podiums at Detroit.

O’Ward had been promised by Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren Racing, a Formula One test for his first IndyCar victory. Asked what he gets for two wins, O’Ward nervously looked toward Arrow McLaren SP president Taylor Kiel.