INDIANAPOLIS — Pato O’Ward smiles as he walks through Gasoline Alley, taking note of the Arrow McLaren No. 5 shirts in the garage area at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Sure, he’s popular, but O’Ward wants something more: to be called an Indianapolis 500 champion.
After three near misses in his past four races on the Brickyard’s iconic 2.5-mile oval, the two-time runner-up hopes to finally sip the milk and celebrate with all of his fans and everyone else in the grandstands on Memorial Day weekend, when the spotlight on the motorsports world is extra bright.
“It’s cool. It’s obviously a big part of why we do what we do, right?” said O’Ward, 27, who is trying to become the iconic American open-wheel race’s first winner from Mexico. “We want to be here to entertain people, inspire people. At the end of the day, it is the greatest event in the world. I might be a little bit biased. But it’s going down this Sunday.”
Few drivers have come as close as O’Ward without eventually making it to victory lane at IMS. He finished second in the Indy 500 in 2022 and 2024, third in 2025, fourth in 2021 and sixth in 2020 as a race rookie. His only finish outside the top five came in 2023, when he was 24th.