Pato O'Ward Still Fast, Leads First Practice at Laguna Seca
Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward is still on the gas in pursuit of his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship.
The winner of two of the past three races delivered a strong first step toward winning at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca by turning the fastest lap of the first day of practice (1 minute, 9.20269 of a second on the 11-turn, 2.248-mile circuit).
SEE: Practice Results
O'Ward, who earlier this month won an oval race at Iowa Speedway and the street race in Toronto, will try to add a road course victory to his hot streak in Sunday's Java House Grand Prix of Monterey (3 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).
O'Ward enters the weekend with a 99-point deficit to three-time series champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing. Realistically, O'Ward still has a significant points hill to climb, but he vowed to keep charging as long as he remains mathematically eligible for his first career series title.
'We need to keep winning races because that guy (Palou) wins races, and he has won a lot more races than we have this year,' O'Ward said.
Palou has won seven of the first 13 races this season. O'Ward has won two.
Palou was fourth on the Day 1 charts, trailing two-time event winner Colton Herta of Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian and Marcus Armstrong of Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian. Herta and Armstrong posted nearly identical times -- 1:09.3173 and 1:09.3174 – with Palou at 1:09.3679.
Statistically, this has been Palou's best track, with four consecutive top-three finishes, including race wins in 2022 and 2024. The driver of the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda is bidding for his third consecutive series championship and fourth title in five years.
O'Ward is one of four drivers mathematically still eligible to win the Astor Challenge Cup, although Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood (minus-173 points) and Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon (minus-174) are hanging on by a thread. The four title hopefuls are the only four drivers to have won a race this season.
Herta is the only two-time Laguna Seca race winner in this 27-car field. He won in 2019 and 2021. Dixon won the 2023 race. Palou won last year's race from the pole, something Herta did twice.
Friday's practice saw several drivers push the track limits too far, and it began with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Devlin DeFrancesco bouncing through the gravel at the exit of Turn 4 and hitting the barrier. The impact of the No. 30 Mi-Jack Honda with the left side, the same side that Ed Carpenter Racing's Alexander Rossi hit in Turn 6 with the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet.
'We just lost it out of (Turn 4),' DeFrancesco said. 'The grip's super low, and I think the track is slipping away quite quickly. There are some patches that are quite grippy, so conditions change quite a bit. Conditions are tricky.'
Herta noted that Northern California's wind and dust leads to the asphalt getting 'chewed up and beat up' – thus the low grip for the racing tires.
Dixon spun the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda exiting Turn 5, and rookie Jacob Abel did likewise in Turn 3 in the No. 51 Abel Construction Honda of Dale Coyne Racing. Later, Rinus VeeKay and his No. 18 askROI Honda of Dale Coyne Racing spun off Turn 11 with Ed Carpenter Racing's Christian Rasmussen nearly doing the same thing trailing him in the No. 21 Liquid Science Chevrolet.
'We're trying to find the limit out here,' Rasmussen said with a smile.
The last of the incidents saw Team Penske's Josef Newgarden lock his rear tires approaching the famous Corkscrew – that's Turn 8 – and his No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet slid off the track and got stuck in the gravel.
The weekend's second practice will be held at 11:30 a.m. ET Saturday followed by NTT P1 Award qualifying at 2:30 p.m. ET. Both sessions will air live on FS1, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network. Sunday's action begins with the warmup practice at noon ET on FS2, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network.
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