Steady New Approach Smoothing Wrinkles for Pato O'Ward

Pato O’Ward spent the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season chasing Alex Palou. He wasn’t alone.

Palou won his fourth Astor Challenge Cup, including his third in a row, each with Chip Ganassi Racing. O’Ward finished second in the standings, a whopping 196 points behind – the equivalent of more than three races’ worth of points. The question was not whether Palou could be beaten. The question was how.

“I want to be able to beat him,” O’Ward said. “For us, it’s important to execute. That means we can’t have the little slip-ups you might see from us. We’ve never had a year without them. We’re still striving for that perfection.”

O’Ward (photo, top) opened the 2026 season with a focus on eliminating those mistakes. That approach has delivered steady results through three races.

The Mexican driver qualified in Row 4 in the first two events in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. He started eighth in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and seventh in the Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway. He finished fifth and fourth, respectively.

Good points days.

O’Ward qualified third and finished fifth in last weekend’s Java House Grand Prix of Arlington.

Those results place O’Ward tied for third in the standings at 93 points with Josef Newgarden of Team Penske entering the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on March 29 at Barber Motorsports Park. They trail points leader Kyle Kirkwood by 33 points. Palou sits second, seven points ahead of O’Ward.

Kirkwood and O’Ward are the only drivers with top-five finishes in all three races this season. Mission accomplished.

The early schedule has favored Kirkwood and Palou.

Five of Kirkwood’s six career wins have come on street circuits, including last Sunday’s victory on the 2.73-mile Arlington layout. Two of the first three races this season took place on street courses. Palou also excels on those tracks. He finished first and second in the two street races this season.

“Those Andretti cars have rocket ships,” O’Ward said. “It’s not a shocker, but holy moly. I think we did the best we could with our street course package. But we’ve got work to do if we want to win these street races because I didn’t have anything for the Andretti Honda camp here.”

Three top-five finishes mark a strong start. Consistency has kept O’Ward near the top of the standings after the same trait slipped late last season.

He finished 24th or worse in two of the final three races in 2025. At Portland International Raceway, O’Ward started from pole before a mechanical issue dropped him to 25th. In the season finale at Nashville Superspeedway, he again started from pole and led 116 laps. A crash on Lap 126 dropped him to 24th.

O’Ward (photo, above) still finished in the top five in points for the sixth time in seven full-time seasons. He sits in that range again after three races.

The next stretch of the schedule could work in his favor to take the next step – winning his first championship.

Honda has won 15 of the last 17 street races in the series. Only one of the next four races is on a street circuit. The schedule shifts to natural road courses and ovals, where O’Ward has excelled.

He earned five top-six finishes on natural road courses last season, including two runner-up results. He also ranked second in oval points behind Palou. In 33 career oval starts, O’Ward has four wins, nine runner-up finishes and 24 top-five results.

O’Ward has four top-six finishes in his last five starts at Barber Motorsports Park, including a win in 2022. He also started from pole there in 2021.

The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach follows Sunday, April 19. The series then moves to the Sonsio Grand Prix on Saturday, May 9 on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. O’Ward finished second in that race last season.

The month ends with the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on May 24. O’Ward finished second in 2022 and 2024 and third last year.

“We’ve just got to keep building,” O’Ward said. “We never want to stay static. Even if it’s a small step, we want to keep moving forward.

“I think we’re right there. That big step, winning the Indianapolis 500, winning a championship, I believe we’re already there. We just have to get it done.”