Pato O'Ward has turned the Indy 500 into his personal party, and everyone seems to be invited
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Pato O'Ward was about to head through the tunnel leading from Gasoline Alley to pit road at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday when he made an abrupt right-hand turn and headed down a very different sort of alleyway.
One made up of screaming kids, all wearing papaya-colored caps and forming a human tunnel with outstretched hands.
Ever a man of the people, O'Ward proceeded through them with his own hands outstretched, giving a hundred-plus high-fives in the time it takes to change four tires and fuel an IndyCar. Then, the Mexican driver turned around and dashed back, ultimately to the track for the final practice before this weekend's qualifying for
the Indianapolis 500
.
'Did you see him?' squealed one of the kids from Monarca Academy, a predominantly Hispanic school in Indianapolis.
It's hard to miss him.
Indeed, just about everywhere O'Ward goes,
he seems to draw a crowd
. Hundreds of fans will stand for hours in the sweltering sun outside the Arrow McLaren garage to
catch a glimpse of him
. And when they start singing O'Ward's name, planning sessions and debriefs have been put on pause so that he can give them what they want.
Might be one of those high-fives. Or a quick picture. Or an autograph.
Perhaps scrawled across one of the cardboard promos of O'Ward that folks keep stealing from the local supermarkets.
'It's grown a lot, really,' O'Ward said of his stardom. 'Last year's Indy 500 was a big step in that, I would say.'
After finishing second to Marcus Ericsson two years earlier, O'Ward had once again put himself in position to win 'The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.' He passed teammate Alexander Rossi for second with 10 laps to go, and began tracking down defending champion Josef Newgarden, passing for the lead as they roared into Turn 1 on the final lap. But as they entered Turn 3 at the end of the long backstretch, Newgarden regained the lead, and he held on from there for
his second Indy 500 win
.
It wasn't just the heartbreak of finishing second again that further endeared O'Ward to his fans, though. It was his response. On pit road, he only managed to get halfway out of his car before slumping over, his helmet hiding his naked emotions.
They came out later, when O'Ward admitted: 'I just want to win this race so freaking bad.'
'It owes me nothing,' he added, 'so every time we come back, there's always a smile on my face to have another opportunity.'
It has been
a rollercoaster week
for O'Ward, whose team appeared to find some speed in race trim during practice Thursday but then encountered a problem Friday, when cars received the 100-horsepower boost they will use for qualifying.
Instead of getting on the track early, Arrow McLaren was wheeling the No. 5 car back to Gasoline Alley.
'There was something the engineers didn't like in the rear of the car,' O'Ward explained as he walked back to the garage. 'You want to make sure everything is where it's supposed to be, so you don't regret not going back to check it.'
Earlier in the day, O'Ward unveiled
his custom helmet
for race day. It was designed in Germany and shipped to the U.S., where he had a devil of a time getting it delivered to his home. O'Ward spent nearly an hour on the phone during a rain delay Tuesday trying to sort out a dispute over some customs fees, and the package was only released when a woman on the Arrow McLaren team who happens to be married to a high-ranking UPS official somehow intervened.
There are several decals and markings, but most prominent is a monster painted across each side. It is an homage to Cipactli, a primordial sea monster in Aztec mythology, which the gods were said to have sacrificed and then used to create the world.
'It basically devoured everything in its path, but other than that, it was sacrificed to create heaven and earth,' O'Ward said. 'I think you do have to make sacrifices to achieve greatness, and that's what we're trying to do this year.'
He wants to make sure a whole bunch of his fans can see it, too.
The Indy 500 is expected to be sold out well ahead of the May 25 running — perhaps as early as this weekend — which means a crowd of about 350,000. O'Ward bought 300 of those tickets and gave them away to fans who bought his merchandise.
'I think it's great. It's just such a phenomenal event,' he said, 'and I have my own suite for the first time here at the Indy 500. I'm super stoked about that one. Definitely haven't sold out in that one, but it's OK.'
___
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When the Dodgers fell behind in the third inning Tuesday night while desperately short of options on the mound, the defending World Series champions essentially decided to punt a game away to the San Diego Padres. Advertisement Matt Sauer, a 26-year-old minor leaguer getting his fourth callup already this season, threw 111 pitches while giving up 13 hits, three walks and nine runs and facing 30 batters in the Padres' 11-1 victory. The Dodgers allowed Sauer to pitch 4 2/3 innings with nothing close to his best stuff, and the Padres' loaded lineup feasted on him while turning a much-anticipated rivalry game into a laugher. Utilityman Kiké Hernández then took the mound during the sixth and pitched the final 2 1/3 innings, allowing three hits and one earned run while throwing 36 pitches — none faster than 57 mph. Manager Dave Roberts grimly acknowledged that the Dodgers essentially had to give up on trying to win this game after falling behind 3-0 in the third inning. 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Sauer accepted his bizarre fate, realizing the Dodgers needed his arm to fill innings while they regrouped. 'I've just got to be better with locating the ball,' said Sauer, who signed a minor league contract with the Dodgers last winter. 'I wouldn't necessarily say (it's) a pride thing. I know my role is to eat up innings, and I feel like I've got the frame and the repertoire to do that, and I'm going to go out there and compete every time.' Everyone recognizes that the deep-pocketed Dodgers' success over the past several years has happened despite a jaw-dropping slew of major pitching injuries. Last season was similar to this campaign, with practically every pitcher on the roster missing large chunks of the season and postseason. Advertisement Los Angeles won the World Series last season with an October starting rotation of late-season acquisition Jack Flaherty, Yamamoto (who missed three months of the regular season) and Walker Buehler (who also missed three months) supported by multiple bullpen games. Flaherty and Buehler then left in free agency. Roberts disagreed with the notion that the Dodgers' unlikely success with bullpen games last season — particularly in the NLDS against the Padres — could have given them false confidence in their ability to solve these major pitching woes with that strategy. 'Today wasn't really a bullpen day,' Roberts said. 'If you look at last year, certain games, you have nine guys that you have available, and we certainly didn't have that today. Somebody was going to have to take three to five innings. We weren't in that situation last year, so I don't think that's a fair comparison. When you get behind, you've got to kind of just ride it out.' ___ AP MLB:
