How will Pato O'Ward celebrate Synk 275 win? Gifting Josef Newgarden Kit-Kats: 'A lot of salt to get rid of'

Indianapolis Star

13 hours ago

NEWTON, Iowa — For Pato O'Ward, Saturday's win in the Synk 275 was deeply personal.
Don't mind the fact that win No. 8 of his career came on his 100th start, or that Iowa Speedway became the first track in his IndyCar career where he's snagged a second win — with that first one three years ago in Corn Country coming in his 50th IndyCar start — or that he goes to bed 20 points closer to championship leader Alex Palou.
Because after 16 runner-up finishes in his career, six times to Josef Newgarden, the young Mexican driver wasn't about to surrender the late-race lead he inherited at the close of the race's final pitstop exchange, certainly not to the Team Penske driver who led the first 232 laps and took the checkered flag stalking O'Ward's rear-wing, seething as he drove.
'He's the guy that I've been most around, especially to win races. If it wasn't for him, I would have a lot more wins,' O'Ward said, chuckling and leaning back in his chair as he spoke. 'But he's a tough competitor. I think this year for him has been quite different to what it's been in the past.
'I see him very differently, to be honest: like his attitude and everything is definitely not the Josef that I've always praised, I would say.'
When asked by IndyStar to elaborate — "Was there, for example, a particularly tense post-race moment between the two?" — IndyCar's superstar driver simply smiled and offered this: 'I'm gonna ask Kit-Kat to send a care package to his home, because he's got a lot of salt to get rid of.'
'I've studied him. I know how to race him. He gets what he gives, and if he was flirting with fire there, then that's what he got, and that's what I was going to give him,' O'Ward continued. 'Because you get to these points in your career, and for me, especially today when I was behind him, I said, 'Today is the day that's going to change.'
'Because obviously (Josef) has a lot more experience than I do, but I think over the years, I've grown to realize that I'm pretty handy, at least on certain ovals. And I believe our package is very strong, and it's important to capitalize when we can get those wins.'
As pivotal, emotional and cherished as many of O'Ward's seven previous wins in his IndyCar career have been, some might argue that a few of his close calls have similarly defined and shaped his first chapter or two in the sport, too.
That late-race sprint out of the pits in 2020 at World Wide Technology Raceway that he lost by mere inches. His thorough throttling of the field at Texas Motor Speedway, where he at one point lapped the rest of the field, but where he also lost a back-and-forth, lap-by-lap, side-by-side battle by virtue of an ill-timed race-ending caution. The 2024 St. Pete season opener he never got to celebrate, but nonetheless owns the trophy and the win in the record books. The devastating Indianapolis 500 heartbreaker that left him in tears, where he led at the close of Lap 199, only to watch a blur of red and yellow breeze by on the outside through Turn 3 of Lap 200.
All those runner-up finishes and more have come at the hands of Newgarden, the two-time series champ and two-time 500 winner who O'Ward spoke glowingly of early in his career and who not long ago appeared to be creating a publicly playful "older brother, younger brother" dynamic simultaneously as they became IndyCar's biggest stars.
At least on O'Ward's side, much of that shine has clearly worn off, but as the Arrow McLaren driver explained, that doesn't take away from the way in which Newgarden, and Team Penske, have become the class of the field at IndyCar's annual stop in Newton, Iowa. That fact, he said, shaped the way in which O'Ward patiently, methodically drove and studied himself through the opening stages of Saturday's 275-lap race.
For one, O'Ward said he wasn't surprised to see Newgarden pop into the pits first for the final exchange of the race on Lap 233, as he allowed Saturday's polesitter to burn ever so slightly more fuel while running out front for the first 232 laps. Not only did that put Newgarden at risk of getting caught a lap down by an untimely caution, but when O'Ward did finally pit two laps later, the 26-year-old knew doing so would, if executed properly, give him clean air and the chance to pop out of the pits with some cushion to the No. 2 Chevy trailing behind.
Then it would be up to him to hold off the six-time Iowa Speedway winner.
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And so O'Ward tore out of the pits for the final time like a bat out of hell, cognizant of the fact he'd spun earlier in the morning in practice doing just that, but also supremely focused on nothing but the task at hand and the opportunity in his lap — particularly after Newgarden's final stop ran a hair long due to the smallest of delays getting his left-front tire secured.
'Yeah, if we were just a little quicker, then we (pass him),' Newgarden said, stone-faced, steely eyed as he spoke. 'It just takes one bobble.
'We just needed to maintain position. That was going to be the key.'
As he had referenced earlier in the day in the wake of securing pole for the first of two races in the doubleheader weekend, Newgarden entered the weekend staunchly of the belief IndyCar had gone the wrong direction in its package decision — one with high downforce and lower engine boost — brought in an attempt to remedy what last year at Iowa Speedway was single-track racing due to the lack of a second runnable lane. That frustration seeped into his dejection Saturday evening, as he settled for his second podium of the year in a season that for him, and Team Penske, is yet to include a win. Climbing to 14th in points from 19th, snapping a streak of three consecutive DNFs and grabbing just his fourth top 10 of the year offered little consolation for the 31-time IndyCar race-winner.
'(Pato) pushed me up in (Turn) 3 on the restart when I had a good run. You're going for the win, so I almost — I can't fault him,' Newgarden said. 'But with this package, I was flat out. Couldn't do anything different. He got position, and that was that.
'I was just kind of managing risk today. A day like today was going, I wish I would have done a little bit more, but we've got tomorrow, so we'll see what we can bring.'
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The difference in the pair shone in the way in which O'Ward has handled close calls in 2025 — a season where at the halfway mark, he had finished runner up three times without picking up a win. His most consistent season on race days, O'Ward said, has seemed to coincide with a run of his worst season-long qualifying performances — leaving him so often in damage control mode trying to salvage top 10s or top 5s as he watched Palou gobble up first- and second-place finishes left and right.
Even as he sat in Newgarden's rearview mirror for nearly 150 consecutive laps — much of that with a gap that ping-ponged either side of half-a-second — O'Ward didn't feel as if he needed this win. There was no desperation, something he said he began to see come alive in one of IndyCar's fiercest modern-day competitors as Newgarden tried to slice and squeeze his way back to the lead to no avail.
'How bad did I need it? I wanted it,' O'Ward said. 'I wouldn't necessarily say that if I didn't get it, it was going to be the end of the world. We've been chipping away at it, and if it wasn't a win, I think it was going to be a second place.
'Josef, he was poised to get another win. He's dominated here. But like I said, we've had a lot of battles, a lot of 1-2 finishes, and in a lot of those, I've been the two. It's just way nicer and a way better feeling when you're No. 1. Yeah, I know how to race him. He's probably the guy that I know how he races the most and the one that I've studied the most, because he's the one that I've been behind the most.'