Patricio O’Ward added yet another second place to his already strong start of the IndyCar season. Starting from fifth he made the strategy work to cross the line behind the untouchable Álex Palou.
“Super stoked for the team,” he began the press conference. “We put three cars in the top five. Fricking hard to do in this series with how competitive it is. Just stoked for everybody in the organization, for our 5 crew.
“We made our strategy really work, right? I just think today Palou and Ganassi were very, very strong, so we couldn’t quite get them there in the end.
“Historically this hasn’t been the best of tracks for us. So this is awesome to see just the massive step forward we’ve taken here in race pace. Super happy to see that.
“Rolling with some great momentum into our Super Bowl.”
The fact that eventual winner Palou started on the softer red-walled tyres didn’t make O’Ward second-guess his strategy, despite him feeling he could have used his push to pass better.
“I was happy with my strategy. I just think right when we were I believe second-to-last stint, I just blew too much push to pass. I could have used some more to keep Palou behind us, which I think we might have been able to do.”
On the other side of the coin, a badly timed yellow might have ruined his race, so the Mexican was still very pleased with his result.
“You got to pick your battles,” he added. “I was like, You know what, at this point of the stage of the race. I think that was the defining moment of the race because a yellow never came out. If a yellow did come out, I would have been in very big trouble.
“I just played it safe, yeah, chose my battles cautiously. Super happy, content with the solid points that we got today.”
In the end, new championship leader Palou dunked 16 seconds on the Arrow McLaren driver, but O’Ward feels that had more to do with track position and traffic than with the strategy concocted by his crew.
“Track position is so much here,” he explained. “I took longer to get by Lundgaard than what Alex did. I got stuck behind other guys a little bit longer than where he made up the time. When he got out of the pits, I was held up by some lappers. That all just adds up to the amount of time that you just keep losing, especially in those crucial in and out laps.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously we’re going to look into it and see what we could have done better. I think it was a job really well done, not just by our car but all three Arrow McLarens.”
Sitting in second place on the championship table, O’Ward wasn’t too concerned about his lack of wins this season.
“Man, I’m flowing. I know my wins will come. I’m chilling.”
