IndyCar star Pato O'Ward sounds off on Indy 500 after 4th-place finish
IndyCar star Pato O'Ward sounded off about the Indianapolis 500 after Alex Palou passed Marcus Ericsson with 14 laps to go to win the race for the first time in his career.
The Arrow McLaren driver took issue with the lack of fight from Ericsson when Palou passed him for the lead late in the race, as well as how some of the restarts took place.
"Pretty crap race I would say. Just kinda sucks that it went down to -- the switcheroo was for the last position of the race and Ericsson actually kinda choked there and let Palou by and just kind of … he just had to pedal it there," he told FOX Sports. "I don't think it's a finish anybody here woulda wanted to see.
"I just feel like there was a bunch of non-experience in the front of the restarts and some of those restarts were pathetic. Those were not of the level that we should be seeing at the Indy 500. It just felt like we were playing roulette in a casino and picking outside or inside and just depending on what everyone else was choosing you either got screwed or you made like 10 positions."
O'Ward finished in fourth place after starting the race in third.
"We got hosed there a couple times but we made it back up a little bit after being a bit more in the middle," he said. "I fought my way as hard as I could."
There were 44 laps run under caution, starting from the very beginning as rain plagued part of the race and then started with a Scott McLaughlin crash before the green flag waves.
On the first green-flag lap, Marco Andretti crashed into the wall.
However, the race featured 22 lead changes among 14 drivers. It was Palou who ended up in the winner's circle by the time the race was over.
Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indianapolis Star
15 minutes ago
- Indianapolis Star
'We should beat him': Kyle Kirkwood's win gives Andretti Global confidence it can beat Alex Palou
DETROIT — Kyle Kirkwood started to crack a wide smile, but the Andretti Global driver quickly caught himself. A driver sailing into the wall on a late-race restart while trailing the car that would eventually finish third isn't a laughing matter, but then again, being on the wrong side of the better part of three months of Alex Palou's nearly unceasing domination of the 2025 IndyCar campaign has left the championship leader's rivals with in peculiar emotional spot. Do you step back and appreciate the history you're witnessing — a start to an IndyCar season not duplicated since 1979? Do you let the Chip Ganassi Racing Driver's five wins in six starts, including his first Indianapolis 500, agitate you to no end? Do you do your best to ignore it and shrug off references to a triple-digit championship gap while nearly every week getting asked questions about it again and again? And so when Kirkwood was asked whether his strategist Bryan Herta told the eventual Detroit Grand Prix race-winner over the radio that Palou had crashed out of Sunday's action on a Lap 72 restart — to no fault of the Ganassi driver's own — Kirkwood began to smile, as he said, 'No he didn't, but I knew it.' 'I shouldn't be smiling thinking that, but I knew that he crashed, and I knew we needed to capitalize on some points today, given the outcome for him,' Kirkwood continued. 'I feel bad for him, but this also does help us a lot with the points.' For weeks, if not months, Palou's rivals had been trying their darndest to speak into the existence of Palou's IndyCar reign — frankly not knowing what else to do as the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 10 team, led by lead engineer Julian Robertson, crew chief Ricky Davis and strategist Barry Wanser, made the right calls at every turn, executed flawless pit stops at every opportunity and engineered a speedy race car at all sorts of circuits — all with a three-time series champion in the cockpit to boot. And yet, as Palou learned the hard way during his first championship run at World Wide Technology Raceway, sometimes chaos can creep up behind you and tag you at a moment's notice with a simple lock of a trailing car's tires. 'Time will tell. You don't know if this run ends this weekend or next weekend or the weekend after. You have no idea,' fourth-place championship challenger Christian Lundgaard said Friday in Detroit. 'But you guys know as well as we do that (Palou's) run is going to end at some point. He can't win the rest of the races for the rest of this life. 'But the smallest little bit of contact, and he's out of the race. It could be his fault or not, and that can end his streak.' That's precisely how Palou's 112-point championship lead on Pato O'Ward, who finished third in the Indy 500 but lost 15 points on the runaway championship leader, shrunk back to double digits at 90 points at the checkered flag of the Detroit Grand Prix, despite a rather lackluster race weekend from the young Mexican driver that saw O'Ward only finish seventh. And it's how Kirkwood, who at the checkered flag of last weekend's 500 appeared to be trailing Palou by 126 points, only for a post-race tech inspection failure to widen that gap to 150, now sits 102 points back after his second win of the year, still as IndyCar's only non-Palou race winner through seven of 17 events this year. A race that had featured two instances of loose wheel-induced crashes and a beef-sparking spin was set to restart with just under 30 laps to go, following a caution to clear Callum Ilott's mangled No. 90 Prema Racing Chevy off the track. To their incredibly good fortune, Santino Ferrucci, Kyffin Simpson and Marcus Armstrong had pitted from 15th, 16th and 19th, respectively, just a couple laps before Ilott's day would come to an end, leaving the trio in the catbird seat as the other 22 cars dove into the pits, leaving them suddenly running 1-2-3 on equal strategy to the rest of the field, forced to fend off a hard-charging pack of five cars that had run up at the front virtually the entire day, but instead of first through fifth, now occupied fourth through eighth. Back to the Motor City: IndyCar to return to Detroit Grand Prix for at least 3 more years Whether or not they leapfrogged the new cars ahead or not, Kirkwood, Will Power and Colton Herta (who ran 1-2-3 before the caution and 4-5-6 at the time of the restart) were in line at the moment to make up some chunk of points on Palou, who sat seventh in line at the time of the return to green flag racing, but whether that bite out of Palou's lead would be meaningful or marginal would depend on how effective a sprint to the finish they'd go on to make. 'We had to pass some cars out there,' Kirkwood said. 'It was some low-percentage moves, I'm not going to lie, that I made. But you have to on street courses.' One corner after a return to green-flag racing, not a low-percentage move, but locked up tires from the car trailing behind of AJ Foyt Racing's David Malukas sent the No. 4 Chevy skidding into the back of Palou and ended with the No. 10 in the tires and Palou's day done down in 25th. 'It's very unfortunate after an amazing recovery this weekend when we didn't have much pace,' Palou told the Fox broadcast after being released from the infield care center. 'It doesn't feel great, but there's not much we could've done there.' As he cycled around and saw the AMR Safety Team trucks flanking the yellow and red machine of the championship leader, Kirkwood said he didn't so much change his focus, but he realized this even deeper: 'I need to win this race," he said. 'I'd known that anywhere we ended up toward the front that we were going to have a good points day, and that was going to help us a lot.' Notably, O'Ward, Lundgaard (fourth in the championship, eighth in Sunday's race) and Felix Rosenqvist (sixth in the championship, 21st in Sunday's race after a late crash) weren't his direct late-race competitors, which made the precise spot Kirkwood finished less of a major hang-up. And yet, IndyCar's proverbial street course king — winner of four of IndyCar's last 11 street races — motored up to the front for what was a relatively comfortable victory by the checkered flag, even after weathering a late-race red flag that bunched back up the field behind Kirkwood with 12 laps to go. 'I'm fine with that,' Kirkwood said, when asked about the importance of both his win and Palou's DNF that handed the championship leader just five points compared to Kirkwood's 53. 'It's super important, but we've got to keep doing it. 'As we know (Palou) can skip out on still a handful more races and be absolutely fine. It's unfortunate for him that he ended up in the wall, but it actually helps us a lot in the championship. It puts us …' And then reality set in for Kirkwood, as he was clarified of the massive undertaking that still lies ahead with 10 races to go. '102 points? That's still a mile away, but it puts you back in a position where you feel like you might be able to get that back,' he continued. 'But I'm sure we're going to go to road courses, and Palou is going to do his thing. So we'll see what happens.' First is a stop at World Wide Technology Raceway, perhaps a proving ground for an Andretti Global group that increasingly over last year has found race-winning short oval pace that had been missing from the team for years. Down the stretch a year ago, Herta found himself in the thick of the fight during a late-race restart, and at the next couple ovals on the calendar, the No. 26 driver would log a podium (The Milwaukee Mile) and his first oval win (Nashville Superspeedway), while Kirkwood took pole in the Nashville finale and found himself disappointed in fourth place by race's end. Palou, though, finished 3-for-6 on short oval top 5s in 2024 and now can call himself an IndyCar oval winner after the 500, and at the two races that follow next on the calendar, Road America and Mid-Ohio, the Spaniard has logged seven top-4 finishes in eight combined starts during his CGR tenure, including three wins and a sweep of the two-race stretch in 2023. As Kirkwood pointed out, super-abrasive road courses like The Thermal Club, Barber Motorsports Park and the IMS road course, a trio that Palou swept in 2025, are done for 2025, and the Andretti Global camp feels relatively confident in their increasingly competitive traditional IndyCar road course package. But already with five wins in seven starts in 2025, with four tracks left where Palou has won before in his still relatively young IndyCar career, it's pertinent to capitalize massively on any other days like Sunday. 'We've just got to get back to our winning ways,' Kirkwood said. 'Because we can't let him win any more races.' Added Herta earlier this weekend: 'I know we can beat (Palou). I know if we do all the right stuff, we have a really good chance to beat him, and we should beat him if we do everything the right way.
Washington Post
34 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Yarbrough's revenge: How a World Series ring inspired his win for the Yankees over the Dodgers
LOS ANGELES — Ryan Yarbrough picked up a dazzling World Series ring from his time with the Los Angeles Dodgers last season. Then he went out and beat them. The New York Yankees starter pitched one-run ball over six innings, struck out a season-high five and blanked the Dodgers' top four hitters in a 7-3 win Sunday night. 'I feel like I'm in a really good place right now and really trying to continue that,' Yarbrough said. 'I'm having a lot of fun.' The 33-year-old left-hander made 44 relief appearances between the Dodgers and Blue Jays last season. The Dodgers designated him for assignment on July 29 and the next day traded him to Toronto. So even though he wasn't around for their World Series victory over the Yankees last fall, Yarbrough earned a ring. He accepted it from Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes on Friday behind home plate during batting practice. 'Trying to keep that a little discreet, especially with where we're at now, but kind of cool to be able to get that,' Yarbrough said. He signed a $2 million, one-year deal with New York in March and is 3-0 with a 2.83 ERA this season. Making his first career start against the Dodgers, Yarbrough recorded 17 swings-and-misses — including seven with his sweeper. The top four hitters in Los Angeles' lineup had produced at least one hit in every game this season. That is, until Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith combined to go 0 for 14 in the series finale against Yarbrough and the Yankees. New York manager Aaron Boone has called Yarbrough a throwback, noting his 6-foot-5 frame creates a 'funky' angle for hitters. 'He's got a lot of ways to get you out. Just when you think he's slowing you down, slowing you down, he's able to speed you up enough,' Boone said. 'It feels like it's hard to get a bead on him.' It certainly was for Ohtani. He struck out on five pitches ranging from 70-86 mph in the first inning, when Yarbrough retired the side in order. Later, he set down 13 of 15 batters before exiting. 'He's not going to light up the radar gun, but all his pitches feel like they get on you,' teammate DJ LeMahieu said. 'His fastballs look like they get on you and his off-speed looks extra slow. He's got good stuff and he knows what he's doing out there.' Yarbrough conceded his familiarity with his ex-teammates helped, too. 'It was just a matter of execution and keeping them off balance and not putting them in counts where they can really hunt for certain pitches,' he said. It was also a big night for LeMahieu, who had his first four-hit game since 2021. He drove in two runs and raised his batting average to .239. The second baseman had three singles and a double on a night when Aaron Judge was the only Yankees player without a hit. 'I feel good. Good to get some results,' LeMahieu said. ___ AP MLB:
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Edwards leads Marlins against the Rockies after 5-hit outing
Colorado Rockies (9-50, fifth in the NL West) vs. Miami Marlins (23-34, fifth in the NL East) Miami; Monday, 6:40 p.m. EDT PITCHING PROBABLES: Rockies: German Marquez (1-7, 7.13 ERA, 1.64 WHIP, 32 strikeouts); Marlins: Max Meyer (3-4, 4.53 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 63 strikeouts) BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Marlins -198, Rockies +165; over/under is 8 runs BOTTOM LINE: The Miami Marlins take on the Colorado Rockies after Xavier Edwards had five hits on Sunday in a 4-2 loss to the Giants. Miami has a 23-34 record overall and a 14-17 record in home games. The Marlins have a 19-7 record in games when they have more hits than their opponents. Colorado has a 9-50 record overall and a 3-28 record on the road. The Rockies have gone 6-18 in games when they record eight or more hits. Monday's game is the first time these teams square off this season. TOP PERFORMERS: Otto Lopez has six doubles and four home runs for the Marlins. Jesus Sanchez is 11 for 35 with a double and two home runs over the last 10 games. Hunter Goodman has 11 doubles, a triple, seven home runs and 31 RBIs for the Rockies. Mickey Moniak is 4 for 25 with two home runs and two RBIs over the last 10 games. LAST 10 GAMES: Marlins: 4-6, .248 batting average, 3.03 ERA, outscored by one run Rockies: 1-9, .195 batting average, 3.97 ERA, outscored by 28 runs INJURIES: Marlins: Derek Hill: 10-Day IL (wrist), Rob Brantly: 60-Day IL (lat), Griffin Conine: 60-Day IL (arm), Andrew Nardi: 60-Day IL (back), Braxton Garrett: 60-Day IL (elbow), Eury Perez: 60-Day IL (elbow) Rockies: Chase Dollander: 15-Day IL (forearm), Kris Bryant: 60-Day IL (lumbar), Ryan Feltner: 15-Day IL (back), Austin Gomber: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Jeff Criswell: 60-Day IL (elbow) ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
