INDIANAPOLIS — They don’t call Pato O’Ward the “ninja,” for nothing. The boxer turned NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver has fast hands and can hang onto a car in the most treacherous situations. It’s why when aggression ramps up, it goes more into O’Ward’s comfort zone.

To win Indy, you have to be overly aggressive. 330k+ fans in attendance saw the aggressive moves made on Sunday including the final restart for the win.

O’Ward had a race winning car and the talent inside of it to make moves to win his first Indy 500 in four starts. Unfortunately, he got overzealous late in the race in making too aggressive in trying to get by Marcus Ericsson on Lap 193.

See, on that restart, O’Ward was leading. Ericsson made a move at the yard of bricks to pass O’Ward for the top spot. Third place at the time, Josef Newgarden made it three-wide to also vie for the top spot.

Newgarden and Ericsson came out of Turn 1 1-2. O’Ward was now in third.

O’Ward got a massive tow on the backstretch and darted out late to make a move back by Ericsson for second. He lost it and skated into the outside SAFER Barriers in Turn 3 ending his day with a 24th place finish.

“I just think I was a little too nice there,” O’Ward said. “I just feel so bummed for the team, we had very fast race cars.

“There were seven laps to go and I was going for it I was way too nice.

“I’ll make sure that he comes with me next time. I got on to the apron to give him room and I got squeezed, and yeah, I won’t forget that one.”

That’s the second race of the season to where he was too aggressive. He did that in Long Beach which left him in 17th. The other four races this year he’s finished runner-up three times (St. Pete, Texas, GMR Grand Prix) and fourth (Barber).

But, on a day that saw Alex Palou rebound to finish fourth, Marcus Ericsson end up his second and Josef Newgarden winning, this dropped O’Ward from (-6) to (-34).

The positive side for O’Ward to even being in that situation was a blessing. They had fueling issues for the second half of the day and on his second to last stop, they didn’t get his car filled.

With everyone at this part of the race in fuel saving mode, O’Ward needed a caution or he was going to be likely finishing where he did at the end anyways.

Then came Romain Grosjean finding the Turn 2 wall for the second straight year. This time on Lap 150.
It was the mulligan O’Ward needed. 12 cars elected to stay out on track going on what ended up being the race winning strategy. Everyone needed to pit again, so for those like O’Ward who pit under this caution, they could go all out pace where the other 12 had to save fuel.

That helped O’Ward. He ended up being okay. When the 12 others all finally pit, O’Ward was leading. He came out third and that’s when he got too aggressive.