AUSTIN, TX – We’re one day away from the NTT IndyCar Series open test at the Circuit of The Americas and we already have a driver change. On Monday, Patricio O’Ward announced that he and Harding Steinbrenner Racing have parted ways.

While this comes as a shock to some, it’s not too surprising for the inner circle. We’ve long heard rumors that the O’Ward/Harding relationship was fading. The team didn’t participate in the test at Laguna Seca on Friday and is only bringing one car with them to the COTA test this week. Unfortunately, the money aspect wasn’t there for O’Ward to race for a full season. Harding, was working on it, but the announcement last Fall was premature.

O’Ward has the Road to Indy scholarship money and brought that to Harding but the team didn’t have the financial support for more than that. Initially, all sides thought they would.

Now, O’Ward is betting on himself and has split from the team and is free to take his scholarship money elsewhere. The problem is, we’re a month away from the start of the season and no one really has any full time seats open.

Plus, a lot of of the top Indy only rides are being filled. Granted, O’Ward has superior talent and qualified his car in the Fast Six at Sonoma despite only one test in the car prior.

In 2018, O’Ward won nine of his 17 Indy Lights starts and had three runner-ups as well.

He will likely land somewhere fast, but odds of a full season are probably slim. Carlin and Juncos make the most sense as does a third RLL seat. Granted, none of the three offer a full season, but he can still make quite a few starts in them.