Pato O’Ward collects first win of year in shootout of IndyCar's young guns

On a day where IndyCar’s young guns shined bright, it was 22-year-old Pato O’Ward who reached victory lane at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.

The Arrow McLaren SP driver started Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama from the second position and made a daring pass to get around race pole sitter Rinus VeeKay on Lap 61 of 90.

O’Ward’s move proved to be the winning one as race leader Alex Palou had to make his final put stop on Lap 64, giving O’Ward a race lead that he did not relinquish through the checkered flag.

“(Team president and chief strategist Taylor Kiel) told me we were fighting for the win when we almost got (VeeKay) in the pit stops, so I said, ‘No, this is the chance, man,’” O’Ward told NBC Sports following the race. “It was so tough to follow just because it’s such a fast and flowing circuit, so I knew if I would have the opportunity, it would have been right then and there. I got on my (push to pass) button, got around him into (Turn) 5, and I knew if we would get into clean air, we could kind of control the thing.

“Once we did that, it was (a) cruise to victory lane.”

Palou (25 years old) finished second, with VeeKay (21 years old) finishing third to round out the all-young guns podium. Veterans Will Power and Scott Dixon finished fourth and fifth, respectively, while Scott McLaughlin, Romain Grosjean, Graham Rahal, Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta rounded out the top 10.

O’Ward’s third career win could not have come at a better time for the young Mexican. It had been nearly a year since O’Ward’s last trip to Victory Lane on June 13, 2021 at Detroit’s Belle Isle street circuit.

He also had a pair of disappointing finishes of 12th and 15th to start the season at St. Petersburg and Texas, and the young driver was already exploring options to race elsewhere.

However, after a respectable fifth-place finish at Long Beach on April 10 and Sunday’s win at Barber, a new deal with McLaren appears to be on the horizon as the 106th running of the Indy 500 rapidly approaches.

“It sucks to be at war within your own team, right?” O’Ward said. “I’m glad there’s been very positive talks for the future and I’ve wanted to do it for these guys.

“I was tired of being 10th and 11th and fifth, so I said ‘let’s get a win under our belt so we can claw our way back into this championship fight’.”

And claw his way back he did. O’Ward now sits atop the point standings with a three-point edge over Scott McLaughlin, a nine-point edge over Josef Newgarden and a 10-point margin over Palou.

O’Ward wasn’t the only driver making headlines at Baber, however. Rookie Callum Illott, driving for the small Juncos Hollinger Racing, looked to have a good afternoon going for him when he made his way up to eighth place. However, Illott’s car ran off course when he attempted to pass Helio Castroneves, sending him into the Turn 9 sand trap and prematurely ending his afternoon.

Romain Grosjean and Graham Rahal also made some noise in the closing laps of the race when both drivers were in a heated battle for seventh place entering Turn 5. It appeared Grosjean intentionally hit Rahal Both drivers made contact multiple times and Rahal was heard yelling “he’s a punk!” over his team radio in reference to Grosjean.

Rahal ran out of fuel after crossing the finish line and was unable to make it back to the pits during the cooldown lap.

The NTT IndyCar Series now heads to the “Racing Capital of the World” for an exciting month of racing in Indianapolis. The GMR Grand Prix takes place on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on May 14, followed by the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29.