It’s Been Good and Smooth for O’Ward at Indy
Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment
By Dennis Krause
Not only was Pato O’Ward the fastest driver on Day 3 of practice for the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 with a speed of 227.308 mph, he also posted the eighth fastest “no-tow” speed of the day at 222.621.
“It was a smooth day,” commented O’Ward. “We got some race running, qualifying simulations in. The car is in a good balance window. Tomorrow when the boosts come up, it does change quite a bit.
“I think we're definitely in a good -- the starting point, I think, has been one of the best balances that I've had, at least with the first few qualifying sims we've done into a qualifying weekend.
“I have had it in the past where it feels good on the low boost, but then you put the higher boost and things do change. We'll see what we've got tomorrow. Hopefully it will be good enough to have our first run in a high boost in the window to just pepper it in a little bit.
“Yeah, so far it's been good and smooth.”
Known as “Fast Friday” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, teams will receive extra turbocharging boost for practice before qualifying runs to set the grid positions on Saturday and Sunday.
With the boost dialed up for the next three days, the cars will feel a bit different than they have for the first three days of practice. O’Ward noted that turns 1 and 3 will come up more quickly than running at race boost.
“What I think is a pretty cool feeling is when you map out from your prep map into the full boost,” said O’Ward. “When you see the data and you just see the thing just skyrocket, it's really cool. It really is cool.
“Tomorrow you'll go from the start of the exit of 2 to enter to 3 almost like full beans. So it's cool.”
John Grainda/Penske Entertainment
Helping to add to the nearly 10 mph increase in speeds with the extra turbo boost is the hybrid function of the cars. New to the teams last year at the Speedway, how it was deployed tended to vary. The driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet says he has to use a different strategy of deployment from last year.
“This year we have to because the strategy we used last year was removed from the toolbox by INDYCAR, I believe. Yeah, we're doing something different. I haven't really paid attention to what the other guys are doing, but yeah.
“You're more active for sure. Last year you saw a lot of the cars do one single deploy slowly. This year you see the cars more on double ends of the track.
“I think you'll see people doing different things. You might see like engine camps doing more similar things. So you might see Chevys doing something similar, and you might see Hondas doing something else.
“To start off the runs, you probably will see more of a variance, then I think everybody will probably pay attention to what the fast cars are doing, and they'll probably just apply that.”
One of the main concerns when the hybrid was brought in at the 500 last year, was that it was difficult to pass when running fifth or sixth in a pack of cars. According to O’Ward, that really hasn’t changed, even with some new changes for this year.
“Still tough,” acknowledged O’Ward. “Still very tough, especially if at that point in the race, you will be up against the best four cars. If you're fifth in line, you're going to be up against the best four cars in line.
“Maybe sometimes you might have one in there that kind of snuck his way in, but at that point, but from what I've seen in the past, like good cars always find their way to being in that fight.
“Is it much easier? I probably wouldn't say that it's changed much. It's still difficult. I do think the track temp has a big part of what the ability's going to be behind a bunch of cars. If it gets really hot, I think you will start seeing some cars degrade.
“But today it's just -- it's been too -- it's been beautiful. It's been beautiful. The track temp didn't really go above 115, 110. It's been around there the whole day. Not everybody was doing the race runs when it was that temperature.
“Just like the car changes so much when you increase the boost, it does change a lot when the track temp goes from 93 to 115 or 120. I would expect it to get harder and harder the hotter the track temp gets.”
Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment
That’s where a driver with a ton of experience is so valuable. While this year will be his seventh Indy 500, O’Ward has been taking advantage of new teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay, a veteran of 17 Indy 500s and the 2014 winner.
“I've really enjoyed working with Ryan,” noted O’Ward. “He's obviously somebody that knows exactly what he wants around here. He's obviously very well achieved at this track. It's very interesting to see his point of view and how sensitive he is to certain things that maybe I haven't been in the past.
“So I'm definitely keeping close touch with him and really listening to what he has to say because you got to listen to guys like that, guys like Ryan, Helio (Castroneves). It really is a fine line around here what is fast but also needs to be comfortable in order to either carry a car for 200 laps and/or in qualifying.”
No other race on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule offers drivers and teams as much track time for practice and qualifying than that for the Indy 500. While some drivers might get impatient with the two-week process, O’Ward, a two-time race runner-up, wouldn’t change a thing.
“No, I love the whole process. I love the whole month,” O’Ward offered. “Like the practice days, going into qualifying, like the whole thing of having qualifying its own weekend, I love that. Like I think it's a great way for us as well. Like I really enjoy watching as well, and it's cool to see big runs, big numbers, and then going out there yourself and trying to beat that and match to keep on transferring.
“It's a whole part of the event. I love it.”
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.