Pato O’Ward Tames Nemesis Josef Newgarden For Much-Needed Win At Iowa

NEWTON, Iowa — When Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan took the stage during the winning team news conference Saturday, he talked about how Chevrolet needed that first win of the season and how the team needed that first win.

But how about the driver himself? Pato O’Ward needed the win, it seemed, as much as anybody as he captured the first race of an INDYCAR doubleheader weekend at Iowa Speedway.

“How bad did I need it?” O’Ward said. “I wanted it. I wouldn’t necessarily say if I didn’t get it, it was going to be the end of the world. We’ve been chipping away at it. If it wasn’t a win, I think it was going to be a second.

“I don’t know how many seconds I have this year, … No. 1 looks and feels much better.”

O’Ward had reason to feel good about the victory, as he was able to use a faster pit stop on the final green-flag cycle to get ahead of Josef Newgarden. He remained ahead of him and led the final 32 laps on the way to the win.

Neither O’Ward nor Newgarden had won this year, and Newgarden has historically beaten O’Ward in their 1-2 battles six times — seven if you count last year at St. Petersburg before the Newgarden disqualification — have they crossed the finish line 1-2 with O’Ward following Newgarden.

“If it wasn’t for him, I would have a lot more wins,” O’Ward said. “But he’s a tough competitor.

“I think this year for him has been quite different to what it’s been in the past. I see him very differently, to be honest, like his attitude and everything is definitely not the Josef that I’ve always praised, I would say. But I’ve studied him. I know how to race him.”

That studying is that Newgarden has made a living making bold moves to take the lead. He can put his opponent in a bad position and take advantage of it.

“I said, ‘today is the day that’s going to change’ because obviously he’s got a lot more experience than I do, but I think over the years, I’ve grown to realize that I’m pretty handy, at least in certain ovals,” O’Ward said. 

“I believe our package is very strong, and it’s important to capitalize when we can get those wins.”

O’Ward became just the fourth driver to win this season behind Alex Palou (six wins), Kyle Kirkwood (three wins) and Scott Dixon (one win).

“We all needed it,” Kanaan said. “The team hadn’t won, and Pato being the leader of this team — he’s been pretty consistent.

“Let’s face it, the series has been dominated by two guys and it’s very weird, so we all needed it.”

O’Ward is the leader of the team but there’s no doubt that he is being pushed by the arrival of teammate Christian Lundgaard, who came from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. They both had four podiums in the first 10 races of the year.

Some had wondered if this is truly a team where O’Ward is the leader. O’Ward solidified himself in that role at least in public perception with the victory Saturday.

“We can’t make him not a leader just because Christian came in and is as strong,” Kanaan said. “It’s pretty well known that this has been Pato’s team for a long time. Christian came in and we’re welcoming him, and now we want it to be both of their teams.

“But Pato is more experienced. He’s been here the longest. Has more wins. … I had throughout my career, great experience with teammates, and we made a team very strong with strong other teammates. So that’s the goal. But Pato always, in my opinion, is going to be the leader. He’s been here for six years.”

Leaders of teams are supposed to challenge for championships, O’Ward cut 20 points into Alex Palou’s lead as he moved to second in the standings but still sits 105 points behind Palou with six races remaining.

One of those races is Sunday in the second race of the Iowa doubleheader where Palou starts from the pole and O’Ward will start ninth.

“The guy just doesn’t have any bad races, and a bad race for him is like fifth,” O’Ward said. “Otherwise he’s on the podium.

We’ve just got to keep chipping away at it. I’ve been as consistent as I’ve ever been. I feel like I’ve been laying low, and that usually means you’re staying out of trouble. But it’s tough to be podium contention and qualifying top-3 every single weekend.”

Palou, after his fifth-place finish, believes O’Ward will be a threat again Sunday.

“Pato has a good chance tomorrow to try in less than 24 hours to get two wins,” Palou said. “We need to try and step it up a little bit and see if we can finish up front.”

Can the “anything will happen” scenario actually happen and for someone to catch Palou? If you look at the unlikelihood of a slow Newgarden stop when he needed it the most, then maybe anything can happen.

“Palou is doing his job,” Kanaan said. “It’s our job to stop it. So we’re going to try as hard as we can. Obviously, he’s pretty strong, but we’ll see.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.