By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
Pato O’Ward’s long wait for a podium in 2026 ended Sunday afternoon at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The Mexican climbed to the top step, his 10th career victory in IndyCar and second at the Ohio based road course.
O’Ward’s first win of the season also coincided with Arrow McLaren’s first 1-2 finish in IndyCar. Christian Lundgaard, who started the race on pole, would play runner-up to O’Ward. The Dane led 41 laps and was in control of the first half of the race, but would lose the lead to O’Ward on Lap 42.
O’Ward would move to the inside of Lundgaard’s No.7 going into Turn 4. The two would go up the hill into Turn 5 and O’Ward would put his no.5 ahead going down the hill.
“I was positioning myself to bounce on an opportunity whenever he would make a mistake, so I was banking on that he was going to make one, and he did,” O’Ward said on the pass to his teammate. “That’s what ultimately gave me the opportunity, and I took full advantage of it. It’s always more fun to do it on track over a pit stop sequence or something.
The clean racing move between teammates would see O’Ward control the rest of the race, leading 45 laps in a caution-free contest.
“It’s great that the first podium of the year for me is a win,” O’Ward said about the race. “We’ve had performances, and I think today was a textbook showing the execution. I want to give it to my guys in the pits; they were phenomenal. I know they’ve been working so hard because this year has been a bit of a challenge, and I know they’re working so hard to give me the pit stops that they gave me today. I know they’ve been working hard for that.”
Lundgaard came into the weekend facing questions surrounding his Arrow McLaren and IndyCar future, but continued a good run of form, despite the result on Sunday.
“Obviously very tough physically out there with the heat, but also just an all-green race,” Lundgaard said regarding his race. “It didn’t really help that we were quite loose. We kind of went into the race knowing that — or thinking the balance was going to go towards understeer, and I don’t think that was the case as much. I think we kind of overreacted and made the car a lot harder to drive. Very, very difficult, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how difficult the car is to drive. I still think we sort of maximized today, which is always nice.”
For Arrow McLaren Team Principal Tony Kanaan, the historic finish is the icing on the cake for his team who seems to be firing on all cylinders in the middle stretch of the season.
“It says a lot about how much work we’ve been doing,” Kanaan said. “Look at this team three years ago and look at this team now. It’s not the same team. We’ve been changing. We’ve been adding personnel. We’ve been adding a lot of the culture that we’ve been trying to achieve. We’ve been adding the Hunter-Reays and the Kyle Moyers and also working with the drivers with what we need and what they need to be able to perform. There are no excuses when you have a name like McLaren and a boss like Zak. As much as you win and you put yourself in a position to do so, I think your life will become easier one way or the other. I am proud of them. Proud of Pato. There is a lot of talk, and I’m not going to debate on it, and I think he has me handling that quite well. So is Christian, and then Nolan with his best last four races, he’s stepped it up pretty much every race.”
Claiming the final step on the podium was Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood. The American, who has never been on a podium at a natural road course, finally broke through on Sunday for a solid day at the office.
“We drove from 10th to third. A lot of it was strategy and pit stops. We had a lot of good strategy that put us in a podium position there, and we also passed some cars in the beginning of the race, so a little bit of both. A really good day overall. It wasn’t where we were meant to qualify. We should have qualified towards the front, I think. I guess I’m glad that we were able to get us back towards the front in the race.”
Rinus Veekay brought his No.76 Chevrolet for Juncos Hollinger Racing home in fourth. It was a positive weekend for the Dutchman, who started sixth. The JHR pit crew performed fantastically for Veekay, who was on the preferred three-stop strategy.
“We had a good start, went from sixth to fourth,” Veekay said. “Once we found out the reds had some drop off and the window for the three stops opened, that’s when we hit the pit lane. Great job by the No.76 crew to give me the car and to Chevrolet for the great fuel mileage, it really helped.”
Closing out the top five was championship leader Alex Palou. A rare “off-weekend” for Palou saw the Spaniard start from eighth and work his way up to another solid finish, earning 30 points towards the championship fight. Palou was also seemingly the only driver to find pace on the red, alternate tire, whereas most drivers would ditch the tire after only a few laps.
“We actually should have stayed with them a bit longer,” Palou said in regards to the red tire. “I thought they were really good compared to the people I was around, but it’s very easy to say that now. Everything went great with the strategy, just a tough day when you don’t have the speed to battle up front.”
SEE: Honda Indy 200 at Mid Ohio Results
Palou leaves Mid-Ohio with a 56 point gap to Kirkwood, with the top five separated by less than 100 points, with O’Ward just 94 points back in fifth.