STEAM CORNERS, Ohio — Pato O’Ward’s victory in Sunday’s Honda indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Series may have come at the perfect time for Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team.
After O’Ward’s disappointing second-place finish in the Indianapolis 500 and off-the-track turmoil, which included the coming and going of multiple drivers during a six-week period, Team Principal Gavin Ward said O’Ward’s triumph came at the right time.
“It’s nice to have a win this season that we can celebrate the day of. I was thinking in the closing laps how big this would be for the team,” Ward said Sunday. “This team has worked so hard throughout the offseason on the hybrid program; drivers, engineers, mechanics, everybody. Every single person on this team has put in so much work.
“It’s been the busiest year in the history of this team, and it’s been a heck of a slog these last few months. It’s great to show what the team is capable of. It was a beautifully executed drive by Pato, and a beautifully executed race from the stand and in pit lane.”
O’Ward acknowledged the victory was a boost for the entire team.
“This year it’s been more of a tough battle,” O’Ward said. “I would say, in road courses, which usually have been our strong suit, so now with the hybrid, with the extra weight, I just think the way we work together and to kind of really extract the most out of this new package was very refreshing, and I think it’s a great boost for all of us to kind of drive us forward.”
• Santino Ferrucci drove to his sixth top-10 finish of the season for A.J. Foyt Racing.
“A solid day for us here at A.J. Foyt Racing. Honestly, the boys did a phenomenal job in pit lane, and I could not have done it without them doing that,” Ferrucci said. “We had the right strategy and great pit stops so all I did was drive the car. We had a great setup on the Sexton Properties Chevrolet and had pace and we were able to move it forward. Sting Ray (Robb) had a solid race too so it’s all good stuff.”
• Andretti Global placed all three of its cars in the top 10 Sunday at Mid-Ohio. Colton Herta led the way, finishing fourth.
“For our No. 26 team side of things, we just wanted to have a clean first race with the hybrid—no reliability problems, check all the boxes for what we wanted it to do. And it did that,” Herta said. “I’m happy with how everything went today. For Honda’s first hybrid Indy car race, I think it performed incredibly well and I think it’s only up from here the more we learn about it for us.”
Marcus Ericsson finished fifth in the No. 28 Andretti Honda, while Kyle Kirkwood came home eighth.
“I think it was a good day,” Ericsson said. “I think the whole team did a really good job. The hybrid power was fun to play with out there—using it strategically as well as we could. We played around with it a lot throughout the race. Changing the balance with it as well, that was fun. It was a good day and a solid weekend. Good qualifying yesterday, good race today, and we keep building.”
• Alexander Rossi finished sixth for Arrow McLaren at Mid-Ohio and had an interesting way of describing his day.
“It was a bit of a boring day for us,” Rossi said. “I made a mistake on lap one, which put us a couple spots behind where we started. Then, we were just trying to recover the rest of the day. It was very difficult to pass.”
• Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin finished third and moved to fifth in the points, building momentum for the coming stretch run.
“We were in no man’s land there, so I had my own race and was just playing with the hybrid a bit and learning it as well,” he said. “I am just really proud of everyone on this Sonsio Protection Chevy. We have been up and down all year and it’s nice to get a solid result. Hopefully, we can build on to this. Now we go to two ovals, two ovals that I really enjoy and just keep building some momentum.”
• Toby Sowery finished 13th in his IndyCar Series debut with Dale Coyne Racing, the team’s best result of the season.
“I’m super happy with that race. Obviously going into it, we didn’t really know what to expect. It was a bit unfortunate with qualifying yesterday,” Sowery said. “It’s a completely new chapter and a new learning experience for me, so to come away with 13th and fighting the big teams on merit not a lucky situation or on strategy, just pure pace and good calls from the team, I’m super happy. I’m also pretty tired, it was a challenge mentally and physically.”