PLYMOUTH, Wisc — Pato O’Ward had a nice rebound on Sunday in more than one way. He rebounded on the season to where he came into the race weekend on the heels of finishes of 24th and 26th respectively. That dropped him from second in points to fifth.

He also rebounded in the race. After being punted by Kyle Kirkwood on the opening lap, to being penalized two spots for blocking a few moments later, he found himself back in ninth place. Here we go again we thought.

Instead, O’Ward quietly did what he had to do in order to get himself back up in the hunt again. He steadily moved up and in the end, found himself back in the top five coming to the final stops. In fact, he was third coming to his final pit stop.

Unfortunately, he was back down to fifth after but with a pass and Colton Herta’s bad pit call, it brought O’Ward back up to the podium to bring his No. 5 Dallara-Chevrolet home in third for his 17th career podium finish in 63 starts.

“It was a hard-fought podium for my 5 camp,” said O’Ward. “We were a bit of a ping-pong ball in the start of the race in turn one and turn three, then got shuffled back even more. So, yeah, we had to pass everybody on track.”

It was a momentum building type of effort as he’s now finished 4th, 2nd, 3rd on natural road courses in 2023. The problem is, with Alex Palou winning three of the last four races, O’Ward, even with a podium, finds himself 98 points back.

“Obviously happy with the result,” O’Ward said. “But yeah, I think we all need to be better if we want to catch the 10 car. That’s just the reality of it. I think same as Josef, we had a massive opportunity to capitalize and I think to win this race, because I feel like I definitely had the pace. We kind of threw that away in our last pit stop.

“Yeah, we’re just going to keep on fighting. We win together, we lose together. That’s how it’s always going to be.

“So, yeah, I’m excited for the nine races to come. It’s still a long championship, lots can happen. We just need to keep improving.”

Unfortunately for his teammates, their momentum was halted.

Felix Rosenqvist started 16th and moved up to 14th on Lap 8 but was punted by Rinus VeeKay in Turn 3. That dropped the Swedish driver down to last as a result. However, he rebounded to get back up inside the top 10 coming to the second to last stint but faded back down to finish 20th.

For Alexander Rossi, he did score his fifth consecutive top 10 finish. However, his second best starting spot of the season left him with his third worst result. That’s what’s frustrating for him. He spoke the last month or so that if he just qualified better, then they’d have a better shot at a win.

“We’ve had a really strong pace on Sundays, we just haven’t gotten the results that we feel like we deserve. We’re missing a little bit on Saturdays,” he admitted. “I mean, it’s a very different car than I’m used to. I just haven’t quite found my happy spot for like the ultimate lap. It’s close. It seems like we’re permanently qualifying 10th, 11th or 12th. It’s not a disaster. We’re certainly much better in race pace, or have been so far this year.

“I mean, it’s not the end of the world. We’ll get there. It’s competitive, and you can’t be missing a 10th of a second. Ultimately that’s what we’re missing.”

Entering the weekend, Rossi had qualified between 10th-13th in 5 of the 7 races. The only two he didn’t were on the oval at Texas and Indianapolis to where he qualified 3rd and 5th respectively.

Now, he started fifth but had a car capable of more.

Rossi entered Saturday’s knockout qualifying as the favorite to win the pole. After being quickest in both practice sessions this weekend and scoring the pole here a year ago, he was a disappointing fifth in the Fast Six round. In fact, he was slowest among the drivers because Kyle Kirkwood didn’t make a lap after having a mechanical problem at the end of the second round.

That’s got to be disappointing for Rossi to not back up that early speed with a pole nor even a topo five finish on Sunday. He’s seventh in points (-128).