MADISON, Ill — You never wish someone else’s path to change for your benefit. But, boy am I glad Pato O’Ward’s overseas path stalled. Selfishly, I was going to miss him. I saw what he can do and knew this success he’s showing in 2020 would eventually come. I wrote so last year. He’s a rising star and glad INDYCAR got a second chance at him.

O’Ward, showed us this weekend in Gateway that he’s going to have some race wins coming soon. While he said on Saturday that he’s somewhat surprised to be third in the NTT IndyCar Series points standings past the halfway mark, the pace shows that a win is coming soon.

O’Ward, was named Rookie of the Year for the Indianapolis 500 last Sunday. He finished sixth seven days ago. One full week later, O’Ward shined even further.

He qualified second and fourth respectively for the doubleheader weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway. He led well 130 laps in the two days and finished on the podium in each race.

But, if not for pit road, O’Ward likely could have swept the weekend too.

“I think today’s race was a bit tougher than yesterday,” said the second year driver. “The track temperature was quite a bit higher, so that makes it quite a bit more difficult when running in traffic, especially when the trains get so long.

“We saw it all race, when the leaders would get to the back of the pack, no one could pass. You can get sort of a distance, then that’s it. You can’t really strike unless you have way newer tires or the other one makes a big mistake.

“Other than, that I’m so proud of this Arrow McLaren SP team. Team Chevy gave us a great package. We were 1-2-3 today with Team Chevy. We rolled out of the gates very strong. Man, I mean, our objective was a couple podiums this weekend, and we achieved that. It would have been great to get a win, but I think it’s great points.

“Josef obviously is in front of us. It’s not ideal, but we closed the gap to Dixon, who had increased it very large yesterday. So yeah, I’m very happy with the results, but we’ve been so close to that win. I know our time will come. Yeah, we just have to keep pushing.”

The Arrow McLaren SP driver pit from second on his first stop on Saturday and leap frogged Will Power for the lead. He would stay out front for the next 94 laps before pitting on the final sequence with Scott Dixon. Despite being flawless on pit lane, Dixon’s crew was just a little bit better as Dixon beat him off pit road on the final stop.

Takuma Sato came out of no where to get to third after the final sequence then passed O’Ward on the outside of Turn 1 in the closing laps for second. O’Ward was puzzled on how he could finish third.

A similar race happened on Sunday. He started fourth but with Takuma Sato running the first stint too long and falling from first to eighth, O’Ward was able to undercut both Penske’s and found the lead again on Lap 59. He’d stay there until pitting for a second time on Lap 97. This time, Power got him back.

He’d never be able to improve out of second.

Power, had a slower final sequence but it was Josef Newgarden who won a drag race off pit road against O’Ward on the final stop 24 hours later instead of Dixon.

“I could probably get within like a car length or two,” O’Ward said on how close he was to Newgarden in the race off pit road. “But more than that it was really tough to follow because the train of cars in front of Josef was massive. If maybe there were no more cars in front, maybe it would have been a bit easier to close up on him and try to get a run. It would have been extremely difficult. My only chance was on the pit exit. I had so much understeer.

“I have so much respect for Josef. He is one of the fairest if not the fairest and cleanest drivers in the paddock. So competitive but yet he’s not dirty. I know that I can really race him hard without putting both of our races in jeopardy. Honestly, tried on the pit exit when I was on his outside but couldn’t quite get it done.”

While he could be frustrated to finish so close to his first win again, the kid showed his maturity by taking it in stride. 

“Not really, man,” said the Mexican driver on if he’s frustrated to be so close but not to have won either race. “I’m honestly having a great year. I’m third in points. I’m scoring podiums. I’m technically a rookie. To be able to be challenging for that in my first year, I think I should be very happy with that.

“Obviously we want to win. We’re in this to win. But we’re in this to be on podiums, as well. We just keep getting better and better. We’re working together, stronger each race weekend. Yeah, we just have to keep doing what we’re doing, executing how we have been, our win will come.”

The win certainly will. The kid is a star. Maybe that win comes next in Mid-Ohio. 

“Yeah, I think this gives us some momentum,” he continued. “Mid-Ohio is the next one, a doubleheader, road course. The road course we didn’t end up very strong. We were two laps short of winning it. I think if we’re able to repeat that but end one step higher, that would be fantastic.”

Still, this is shocking to be where he is right now as he notes that from Texas to Gateway, this team has improved so much. 

“I think the realistic answer is no because I knew was going to be a learning path,” O’Ward said on if he saw this type of season coming. “Even though I had some races under my belt, it’s a new team, new engineers, new car, different car.

“In Texas for me it was just about finishing. I had never been there. That track is fast. It’s not really the best if you end up putting it in the wall. You don’t learn anything. I was just trying to finish that race. I knew once the road courses came, that’s a bit more of what I’m used to.

“I think Road America is where we really hit it off. Hats off to this team. They’ve really made the correct changes. Every time I need something, I tell them, they make a change, it usually works. That’s so important with these super compressed schedules with such little practice. It makes a humongous difference to your race result in the end if a yellow doesn’t fall in someone else’s favor, et cetera.

“Qualifying has been so important. From there we probably just proved to ourselves that we can actually do it and we can win races, be on the podium, really be challengers. I think from there we’ve always come into the weekend with the goal of we want to be on the podium, we want to win, we want to go for poles.

“Again, so far the year has been going so well, there’s still quite a bit of races left, but I think we’ll approach them in the same way, trying to score as much points as we can and we’ll see where we end up at the end of the year.”