O'Ward's deficit grows, but leaves Laguna with head held high

Pato O’Ward needed to turn his second starting position into a strong win on Sunday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. It was the only way to keep championship leader Alex Palou within reach as the IndyCar Series headed into the 14th of 17 races on the calendar, and while the popular Arrow McLaren driver was supported by the majority of the robust crowd in Monterey, it wasn’t enough to get ahead of Palou by the checkered flag.

O’Ward fell from second to fourth in the race where Palou toyed with the field on the way to leading 84 of 95 laps and earning maximum points with his eighth victory of the year. Palou had a 100-point advantage over O’Ward to begin the race and left with 121 points in hand; O’Ward must cut it to under 108 points after the next race – in two weeks at Portland – or the title race is over.

He fought hard at Laguna Seca with the No. 5 Chevy, but the Mexican had the look of someone who knew the chances of overtaking the Spaniard over the final three races were all but lost.

“I didn't have much to fight with, really,” O’Ward told RACER. “We were a lot weaker than I anticipated. We're really struggling on half of the track, just on getting pace out of the car. I felt weak on both [tire compounds]. I did what I could, tried not to make mistakes, held position as good as I could, but yeah, I don't think we on the No. 5 side deserve more than that today.”

O’Ward heads to Portland for the August 10 race on a points-scoring mission where Palou in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda is the defending champion.

“Portland's also been very difficult for us, so it's another track kind of like this one, where hopefully we'll have a good qualifying and then just try and have a good race on from there” he said. “But my expectations going into it are definitely not winning. They weren't that coming into this one, just because I haven't always been amazing here. This is tied for my best result in Laguna. Portland, my best result, I believe, is fourth, so I'm going to try and go better than fourth. The podium would be nice. We're second in the championship, and, you know, we've been the best of the rest, but it's just…the No. 10 car has had a pretty unbelievable season.”

It wasn’t a concession speech, but O’Ward won’t be surprised if he ends the championship where he presently sits in second.

“Yeah, 120 points. It's a tall task, but still mathematically possible,” he said. “Is it likely? Probably not, but we're gonna keep on pushing. This is the most amount of podiums the team has had. Congrats to (teammate) Christian (Lundgaard) on [finishing] P2 but for us, it's been a great month either way, and walking away with two wins, three top fives... We never really got worse than fifth this month, so five races in the top five, and two of those being wins – that's pretty awesome.”

O'Ward has been uncatchable multiple times in his career, so he can’t begrudge Palou for all he’s been achieving this season in the quest for a fourth championship in five years.

“He's performing at the highest level that anyone can ask him to do,” he added. “He's really been the class of the field so far this year, and has been the past few years.”