It has been a fascinating, if not turbulent, year for Pato O’Ward. It seems as though he has taken on the “checkers or wreckers” mentality. Whenever a driver takes on that mentality it is always great for the fans, but rarely beneficial for the driver.
That seems to be the case with Pato O’Ward. He either finishes in the top 5 or he plants his car into the fence. To no one’s surprise, Pato taking on this mentality has ruffled quite a few feathers in the paddock. Or at least Scott Dixon’s feathers may have resulted in retaliation on O’Ward via a Chip Ganassi teammate.
Long Beach Incident
Back in April, the IndyCar series echoed through the storied streets of Long Beach. This legendary street course has a lot of history and is second to only the Indy 500 on the list of drivers most want to win. It is often referred to as IndyCar’s Monaco. The similarities are strong, including the fact that the turns are tight and overtakes are difficult. But that didn’t phase Pato O’Ward when, on lap 20, he dove it in deep on Dixon to force a side-by-side battle at the apex. Dixon wasn’t expecting the move and made contact with O’Ward sending him into the tire barrier.
It seemed to be pretty cut and dry as a racing incident. Yes, it was a late move by O’Ward, but still, early enough he was able to get fully alongside once both cars made it to the apex. Dixon did not see it that way. He was quick to complain in his interview after the incident that Pato O’Ward was too late in making the move. Dixon would even call out IndyCar by saying, “But if that’s how the series wants us to race, then I guess it’s all gloves off at this point”. This is where the tensions between Pato and the Ganassi camp would begin.
Relations between the drivers would become even more tense when they would discuss the incident at the next race in Alabama. O’Ward would concede the point that the incident fell into a gray area of racing decorum so it should be chalked up to be a racing incident. Dixon would remain beholden to his belief that the issue was black-and-white and O’Ward was clearly in violation of racing etiquette
Indy 500 Incident
There were less than 10 laps to go and Pato was thundering down the backstretch, closing in on a gearbox that belonged to another Ganassi driver, Marcus Ericsson. Pato O’ Ward knew that in order to stay in touch with the leader Josef Newgarden, who was threatening to pull away. Going into turn three, Pato made his move. He dove into the inside of Ericsson.
As both cars hurdled around turn three, Ericsson applied the pressure by moving down the track and squeezing Pato O’Ward, leaving zero room for error. An error was made. Pato lost control and careened into the outside retaining wall. Pato made his displeasure with Ericsson known in his interview outside the infield care center by saying, “I’ll make sure that he comes with me next time”
When Will the Next Time Be?
There has been a race between Pato’s fiery interview and Road America. It was on the streets of Detroit. The thing about Detroit is that track is such a nightmare that you just need to focus on getting to the finish. Enacting revenge can’t really be a part of the agenda when racing on that humanitarian crisis. Just ask O’Ward. He wasn’t even trying to get vengeance and he ended up in the barriers.
Road America is a much better track. There’s room for side-by-side racing. Drivers have more experience on it, so they will be more comfortable taking risks. So what does this mean for Pato? Is he intentionally going to go wheel-to-wheel with Ericsson? Or will Dixon feel the 500 incident wasn’t enough and run him off into the grass? Either way, we can be sure of one thing: We should all be keeping an eye on that No. 5 Arrow McLaren machine this Sunday
