Pato O'ward will attempt to become the Indianapolis 500's first winner from Mexico on Sunday after his No. 5 car, which had qualified sixth, was severely damaged in a crash on Monday and forced him into a backup machine.
O'Ward, a two-time runner-up at Indianapolis, walked through Gasoline Alley on Saturday smiling as he passed Arrow McLaren No. 5 shirts and talked openly about the switch. "It's cool. It's obviously a big part of why we do what we do, right?" he said, and added that the backup car is the same one "he won twice with last season."
His résumé at the Speedway reads like a ledger of near-misses: sixth as a rookie in 2020, fourth in 2021, second in 2022, 24th in 2023, second again in 2024 and third in 2025. That string makes him one of the drivers with the closest repeated attempts at victory at Indianapolis and a clear candidate to break through this weekend.
O'Ward acknowledged the stakes plainly. "We want to be here to entertain people, inspire people. At the end of the day it is the greatest event in the world. I might be a little bit biased. But it's going down this Sunday," he said. He also admitted the hunger that comes with repeated near-wins: "I know I'm hungrier than ever just because I know what comes with it (the 500 win) and what it means," he said.
The immediate competitive picture gives O'Ward a stiff challenge. Alex Palou qualified on the pole and is the betting favorite for the race after taking his second Indy pole last weekend, the source says. Sunday will be the 110th Indianapolis 500 and — notably — the first since 1957 without an Andretti, a Foyt or an Unser on the grid, a detail that reshuffles the historical storylines around the event.
The timeline of O'Ward's week is simple and sharp: he qualified sixth, his car was severely damaged in a Monday crash, and he was moved to a backup car. The switch to the car he drove to two wins last season removes some of the unknown a damaged chassis would normally introduce. Still, moving teams, setups and rhythms between qualifying and race day is rarely seamless at Indianapolis.
That gap between circumstance and narrative is the race's tension. O'Ward's long list of top finishes says he knows how to manage a 500, yet he has repeatedly fallen short at the finish line. The crash that wrecked his qualified machine creates another loose variable: can a backup car, even one that has delivered wins, be tailored in time to match the consistency he will need across 200 laps?
O'Ward tried to frame the moment without melodrama. "I don't feel more or less pressure. It's not like because I won once, I need another one. It's more the opposite. It's more like I want to go back-to-back," he said. Whether that is bravado or a calibration of expectation, it underlines the single fact everyone will watch on Sunday — O'Ward has come closer than almost any other driver in recent years and he will get at least one more shot.
What happens next is straightforward: the green flag drops on Sunday and the field will test whether O'Ward's consistency and the proven backup car can finally close the gap that has kept him from victory. Against a pole-sitting favorite in Alex Palou and a field without the sport's long-standing family names, O'Ward's series of high finishes points to him as one of the clearest threats — but only a win will end the long, specific story his track record has written.
