Pato O'Ward Shines in the Spotlight With Victory at IndyCar's Return to the Milwaukee Mile
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Pato O'Ward won his first oval race in over two years Saturday evening. The young Arrow-McLaren driver drove to victory in the first half of a the Milwaukee Mile 250s double-header to become the second driver to win three races on the 2024 season.
O'Ward's first win came six weeks after he crossed the finish line, when Josef Newgarden's victory in the season opener was stripped, he followed this win with one he could celebrate in the moment at a joyous Mid-Ohio as IndyCar entered their Hybrid era.
O'Ward has finished second on an oval eight times in his career with two oval victories. Since his last win he's finished second four times including his heartbreaking last lap in this year's Indianapolis 500.
This win was an exclamation mark on a statement made throughout the week, a statement about how much O'Ward currently means to the sport after comments from IndyCar CEO saying that the Mexican-born racer does not have the star power to support going after a schedule date for the series in his home country.
O'Ward led the final third of the race, with 63 laps to go he cycled back to the lead when Colton Herta, third in points brought out a caution for a loose wheel after the final round of green flag pitstops.
"We had a really tough weekend last week at Portland," O'Ward told Georgia Henneberry of IndyCar on NBC. "This is a great way to bounce back, we have another opportunity tomorrow. The car was fantastic, it was getting a little gnarly there at the end, I’m glad I could get it home for the boys. They were fantastic in pitstop, strategy was amazing. We worked on the car really hard yesterday to have something to fight with today."
Will Power finished in second, keeping the championship battle alive. After his third win of the season last week at Portland, Power continues to narrowly chip away at Alex Palou's lead. Palou finished fifth, shrinking his championship advantage to 43 points.
Conor Daly finished third for a career best finish for Juncos Hollinger. Daly replaced Agustin Canapino after the Argentinean driver was released from the team last month.
"We had a lot of bad luck the first two times together and I think everybody was starting to be like ‘is this the right choice?’," Daly told Dillon Welsh of NBC Sports. "Thankfully they gave me the car today to do it."
The biggest moment of the race came on lap 147 when Josef Newgarden and Marcus Ericsson collided while racing for second place behind O'Ward. Neither party could come to an agreement on who left their racing line to hit the other, but both we're sure it was not their fault.
IndyCar will return to the Milwaukee Mile tomorrow for the penultimate race of the 2024 season as Power and Palou further separate from the field, O'Ward will try to complete his first back-to-back victories on a double-header weekend.
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