Pato O’Ward has been named this year’s Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year on account of his strong run and impressive finish in his Arrow McLaren SP Chevy this past weekend.
The young Mexican driver showed that he could compete with the veterans in one of the biggest motorsport races in the world, converting his 15th place qualifying effort to a sixth place finish.
“We were running in the top five most of the race,” said O’Ward. “We were fighting up there, mixing it up with Dixon, Rossi, Takuma [Sato].
“But man, you know, towards the end I just didn’t have quite enough to try and get those Hondas in front of us. We got everything out of it.
“I think it was a good job for my first-ever Indy 500, [but] the only thing that matters here is winning.”
O’Ward was the top finisher from his team, with Fernando Alonso having clutch problems and Oliver Askew crashing out near the midpoint of the race. He was also the only rookie to finish on the lead lap.
The 21-year-old competed in a partial IndyCar schedule last season and was hoping to be in contention for this very award last year, but failed to qualify for the race and thus did not participate.
“I’m excited to come back next year and try and get that win, as this place is pretty special,” continued O’Ward. “For now, just collecting and move onto Gateway.
“I think we’ve had a fantastic year so far, but we have to keep it going. We have to keep adding up points. Like I said, we have to start adding up more points than Dixon sometime if we want to catch him.”
As a result of his strong finishes so far this season – five top-tens from seven races – O’Ward now sits third in the overall points standings behind Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden, an impressive achievement with half the season now complete.
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