Arrow McLaren searching for pace in Portland

Arrow McLaren was the team to beat at the last IndyCar Series road course event, where Christian Lundgaard earned pole position ahead of teammate Pato O’Ward and O’Ward took the victory ahead of Lundgaard as they sealed the team’s first 1-2 result. Nolan Siegel took 10th, which matched his best road course run of the year.

But the form on display at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in July didn’t make an appearance on Friday at Portland International Raceway as O’Ward (15th), Siegel (18th), and Lundgaard (22nd) ended the opening day of action in search of the front-running pace they’ll need to feature during Sunday’s 110-lap race.

With Lundgaard holding fourth in the Drivers’ championship ahead of O’Ward in fifth, the team will be pressed to find the right settings that will allow its title contenders to stay in the fight with six races left to run.

"A handful to say the least today,” O’Ward said. “It was a very tough Practice 1. We've got some work ahead of us tonight to turn it around for a bit of a more consistent race car tomorrow."

The ever-improving Siegel summarized the team’s rough afternoon of lapping the 1.98-mile road course.

"Very difficult start to the weekend,” he added. “I thought we were going to be OK there after the first run, but we're kind of back to where we've been in Portland. We have a lot to find and not a lot of time to find it, so we'll get to work tonight and see what we can do tomorrow."

Lundgaard’s accustomed to leading the team at tracks like Portland, which made ending the session near the bottom of the order an almighty surprise for one of IndyCar’s best road racers. Nonetheless, he’s confident solutions are within reach.

"It wasn't where we expected,” he said. “Obviously we have a lot to work on, but we do have a good baseline to work off of from last year, and we need to see what we can do to improve since we're not where we were at this point here last year. We've got work to do overnight, but we've got this."