O'Ward Seeks Race Wins to Close Gap on Series Leader Palou

Pato O’Ward continues to deliver consistency during the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, but he doesn't have his desired results.

O’Ward earned his fourth top-five finish in five races with a fifth-place result in April 19 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The finish marked the 52nd top-five finish of his career, tying him for 33rd on the all-time list with Alexander Rossi and Tony Bettenhausen, a mark he reached in just 111 starts.

In most seasons, that level of consistency signals a championship contender. Instead, O’Ward sits fourth in points entering Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, trailing leader Alex Palou by 69 points. Kyle Kirkwood, in second, is 52 points ahead. The 69 points is more than can be earned in a single series race.

“We don’t have enough right now to take it to the guys that are charging forward in the championship,” O’Ward said. “Long Beach was just another weekend to close out a top five, but we need to start fighting for podiums and wins.

“We seem to be full of these fifth places this year.”

Three of those fifth-place finishes have come on street circuits -- the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 1, the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington on March 15 and Long Beach. O'Ward also finished fourth in the March 7 Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway.

The lone outlier came at Barber Motorsports Park, the season’s only natural road course to date, where O’Ward started 12th and finished 17th in the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix powered by AmFirst on March 29.

At Long Beach, O’Ward qualified second but lacked race pace. Four Honda-powered drivers -- Palou, Felix Rosenqvist, Scott Dixon and Kirkwood -- finished ahead of the driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.

“I think we overexecuted in qualifying, but in the race we just didn’t have the pace,” O’Ward said. “We were falling back a little bit and ended up about where we could.

“I don’t know what to tell you: It’s been a Honda show. We’ve got work to do.”

O’Ward said his car is still lacking something compared to its Honda rivals, though he remains confident the team can close the gap.

“We’re missing something,” he said. “We’re missing something.”

The challenge shifts to the Month of May at IMS, where this weekend's race will be followed by the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on May 24.

O’Ward has been strong at Indianapolis in both configurations. He finished second in last year’s Sonsio Grand Prix and started and finished third in the "500." The Mexican driver owns three podiums in his last four IMS road course starts and four top-six finishes in five Indy 500 appearances, including two runner-up results in the last three years.

“Thankfully, our favorite is coming up, which is the Indy 500, right after the Indy road course,” O’Ward said. “That’s really our main focus, and I’m going to try to maximize that.”

He also knows who sets the standard.

O’Ward said Palou remains the driver to beat entering May, as the defending winner of both May races at IMS.

“Alex Palou is on fire still,” O’Ward said. “The guy is strong everywhere. Honestly, it’s impressive to see.”

Closing that gap remains the priority for O’Ward and Arrow McLaren.

“We’ve been working hard just to be at the level of being able to win every race, but we don’t have that,” O’Ward said. “It’s not a reality. It’s still a work in progress. We’re behind on everything because it’s taken us a while to get into development.

“We’re all working hard. The days have been long. The analysis has been very in-depth on where we’ve gone wrong. It’s about minimizing the damage when it’s bad and the next step is figuring out how we win.

“Development takes years. The reality in INDYCAR is the 500 is where everybody puts their (focus). If you had to choose between focusing on the championship or Indy, you still prioritize Indy -- especially for us since we haven’t won that race. There’s always improvement to be made.”

Saturday's race airs live at 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls.