Pato O’Ward’s Time Is Now

The 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season should be remembered as the Year of Pato.

That’s right, this year is all Pato O’Ward’s. He will be the man to beat, challenging for poles, podiums and wins at every circuit he visits, putting two-time champion Alex Palou on notice that this series isn’t his and his alone.

Or at least, that’s what could happen if things work O’Ward’s way, which would be of great benefit to both his team and IndyCar.

That said, making a bold prediction like this before a single competitive lap is run is exactly the type of thing this writer does, and this writer’s record on predictions isn’t stellar. But if O’Ward can pull this off, he will be stepping up onto the stage of IndyCar glory he has chased since getting his full-time ride with Arrow McLaren in 2020. It’s about time that this happens.

The young and aggressive driver from Mexico is part of the mix of young talent that has jumped up into IndyCar over the last five years. Besides himself and Palou, others like Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood and Rinus Veekay have battled for wins after being in the series a combined 19 seasons amongst the five of them, with Palou having claimed his rightful spot in history with his titles.

O’Ward isn’t the type to be overshadowed by his peer’s dominance any longer. That’s why heading into this season, there’s going to be that accession for him that has been teased but not become permanent.

Last year, if bad luck wasn’t O’Ward’s co-pilot, he’d have been the talk of the season instead of Palou. As things worked though, the chatter was aimed at how close he was to winning, without winning. St. Petersburg almost fell into O’Ward’s hands as it seemed he was on verge of stealing victory after the leaders wrecked but a momentary fire in the engine plenum cost him – wait for it – a surefire win. At his home track in Texas, Romain Grosjean crashed just as he was setting up leader Josef Newgarden heading to the white flag. The yellow ended the race. A runner-up result at the GMR Grand Prix of Indy continued his near misses.

Then there was the big kick to the groin. At the Indianapolis 500, O’Ward was clearly one of the best cars, and after contenders Palou and Veekay tangoed their way to contact in the pits that sent them to the rear, it felt like this was the year. All that had to be handled was the savvy Swede Marcus Ericsson, who knew a thing or two about defending his position…