Pato O'Ward Leading Arrow McLaren Charge But Still Work To Be Done
With two drivers in the top four in points, Arrow McLaren can feel closer to challenging for an INDYCAR title.
Pato O'Ward, who finished second in the INDYCAR trip to St. Louis last week, sits 73 points behind series leader Alex Palou. Christian Lundgaard, in fourth, is 129 points back.
For O'Ward, he feels good about where he's currently positioned.
"All we need to do is just keep on our wagon and keep pushing forward, and we'll see if we're sitting pretty in Nashville [the season finale]," O'Ward said.
So how pretty are things at Arrow McLaren — an organization whose parent now competes for wins on a regular basis in Formula 1?
If you are McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, you have to be happy with O'Ward and Lundgaard.
Lundgaard came from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and in his first year with the team last season, he finished 11th in the standings. Alexander Rossi, who Lundgaard replaced, finished 10th in the standings last season. Rossi is now at Ed Carpenter Racing and is 10th in the current standings.
Arrow McLaren's somewhat rookie Nolan Siegel is 21st, a disappointing start to the season. A few weeks ago in Detroit, Brown indicated he wasn't going to have a fast trigger after a season last year when two drivers ran that car until Siegel was hired for the final 10 races of the season.
"I'm not changing any drivers this year," Brown said. "My big thing is progress ... and seeing that he's continuing to grow as a driver."
That being said, Brown indicated that "more is needed" from Siegel.
Brown always keeps people thinking, both with his own team and how he views the series as a whole. His ideas can seem extreme but also honest, so that can make him a polarizing figure. The love-hate relationship in the Formula 1 paddock for him is on full display in the Netflix series "Drive to Survive."
He's frustrated by INDYCAR's slow progress to design a new race car, which Brown believes could increase the quality of racing. Teams were told last week that the car won't be ready until the 2028 season.
"We are in sore need of a new car," Brown said prior to that decision. "I understand we're waiting on the engine formula, which will drive what type of car you need. But I think at the end of the day, we've done a lot of Band-Aids on this car, and it's why it weighs so much, it's not fast enough, et cetera, et cetera."
Now that the team knows it must race this car for at least another two years, there shouldn't be (if there was) any waiting to focus on the development of the new car and not the current one.
If McLaren wants to be a factor — Ganassi and Andretti have won all the races this year with Palou and Kyle Kirkwood — and you've got to believe Penske will eventually emerge, McLaren will need O'Ward to remain consistent, Lundgaard to be even more consistent and Siegel to show more than flashes of potential.
O'Ward, who has four podium finishes this year, is positive when talking about trying to catch Palou, who has won five races this year.
"The guy has been on a run," O'Ward said. "He has five wins or something. I've got zero wins. I've just got a handful of podiums.
"We need to start racking up some wins, and that'll make that points count come down a lot faster than what you're seeing now."
Lundgaard's emergence with the team is a test for O'Ward in some ways, as it could create a similar dynamic to their Formula 1 team of two drivers with similar results trying to establish themselves as the top driver on the team.
O'Ward has held that role for the last four years.
"I think it's great for the team," O'Ward said last month. "I think it's great that we have two cars that are fighting. Nolan is coming up to speed quickly this year, and I think that that's a boost that the team needed.
"To be fairly honest with you, I feel like my biggest competitor is myself. Always is. Always has been. I'm very confident with what I could do with the race car when it's what I need. ... I've always been on my own island. Still am."
He also quipped that "I love that the media is making a big deal out of it right now."
That's the attitude one would expect from athletes. They have to embrace the competition.
Time will tell if O'Ward will continue to embrace at the least the outward resemblance of an intrateam competition.
But he's right. For now, he needs to be on his own island trying to catch Palou.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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