Arrow McLaren consistently breaking curses

The familiar story for Arrow McLaren through the 2024 season was one of never knowing how the three-car team would perform from race to race.

In particular, qualifying was a serious hit-or-miss situation for the Chevy-powered IndyCar Series team, and while it’s highs were high, they were often countered by far too many lows and long drives through the field in the races. The 2025 season has been one of immense change for the team in that regard as track after track where team veteran Pato O’Ward lamented a historic absence of single-lap pace in his No. 5 car has been replaced by front-running performances in qualifying.

New teammate Christian Lundgaard captured pole on Saturday at the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland with the No. 7 Chevy and O’Ward completed the front-row lockout, which added nicely to a string of race-day results by the driver of the No. 5 machine who has five consecutive top five finishes including two wins in July.

In fact, O’Ward owns 10 top sixes from 14 races this season, and Lundgaard delivered six of his own. Together, Arrow McLaren’s lead duo are demonstrating the hit-or-miss days are long gone.

“We're breaking curses, as I like to call them,” O’Ward said. “(McLaren Racing CEO) Zak (Brown) was finally at a race win in the flesh (last month at Toronto). We're finally breaking curses at certain circuits that have always been a very tough challenge for not just my side, but sometimes all three cars. This is a perfect example of this track in the past being a big struggle.

“I'm glad that we've pushed forward. The guys have brought me new things, new upgrades, to try on the cars. That just speaks to how hungry we are to kind of close that gap and just bring the fight to the No. 10 car, which is the only car that's up there all the time.”

The consistently meaningful output from O’Ward and Lundgaard, and on occasion from young Nolan Siegel in his first full IndyCar season, promoted Arrow McLaren to a new level in the series. In moving ahead of Team Penske and Andretti Global, the team’s progress is one of the year’s great stories, but there’s still one team to beat with Chip Ganassi Racing and Alex Palou, who’s won eight races and is on the verge of clinching his fourth championship and third on the trot.

“I think his success this year has overshadowed a little bit of how strong the team has kind of stepped up and given us the tools to perform every weekend,” O’Ward acknowledged.

O’Ward starts on pole for Sunday’s 110-lap race after Lundgaard serves a six-position grid penalty for an unapproved engine change.