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IndyCar: O’Ward holds off Palou to win GP of Alabama

Posted by AR1 staff

On a chamber of commerce perfect weather day in Birmingham, Alabama, Arrow McLaren Chevy driver Pato O’Ward capitalize on their final pitstop to lead the final 27 laps and win the Honda GP of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park.

As has been his trademark so far in his career, he made an exciting move to pass for the lead on lap 61 overtaking pole sitter and race leader  Rinus VeeKay in turn five after both had pitted and VeeKay won the race off pit lane. The young driver originally from Monterey, Mexico never looked back.

On the way to keeping  Chevrolet perfect so far this season in the NTT INDYCAR Series, O’Ward led 27 laps in a race that saw one caution flag for a total of three laps. With four races in the books, Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin won the first followed by Josef Newgarden capturing the next two, and now adding O’Ward to the list.

The victory is the 99th for Chevrolet since returning to the Series in 2012 as an engine supplier with the 2.2 liter twin turbo direct injected V6 purpose-built engine.

It was O’Ward 3rd NTT IndyCar Series win and 1st of 2022. For Chevy, it was their 4th win of 2022, and they have shutout Honda this year so far.

Pato O’Ward – Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama – By: Chris Owens

Last year’s winner of this race, Alex Palou was 2nd, just under 1-second behind for Chip Ganassi Racing.

Pole sitter Rinus Veekay, who led 57 of the 90 laps, had to settle for 3rd, 12.5 sec. behind in his #21 Ed Carpenter Chevy.

Team Penske’s Will Power was 3rd in his #12 Chevy, 15.26s behind while Scott Dixon rounded out the top-5 in the #9 Ganassi Honda.

Scott McLaughlin, Romain Grosjean, Graham Rahal, Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta rounded out the top-10

Rahal Furious with Grosjean

Graham Rahal was furious after what he believed were two deliberate hits from Romain Grosjean in the final laps of the IndyCar race at Barber Motorsports Park.

Grosjean twice banged into the #15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry when he had a dive at the Spider left-hander (Turn 5/Turn 6) on Lap 87 of the Grand Prix of Alabama.

Rahal held seventh position then, although he had to give it up on the 90th and final lap as his Honda-powered car ran very low on fuel.

He insisted that he could tell from the view in his mirrors that the Andretti Autosport driver had run into him on purpose, and cited television footage as evidence.

“When I can look in the mirror and see that his head is directed this way, when the track is going this [opposite] way, it’s pretty self-explanatory,” fumed the six-time IndyCar race winner as he observed replays on Peacock.

“I gave him room. I was trying this outside move on Scotty [McLaughlin] the whole time, so I knew Romain was going to dive bomb me, because I’d already been warned, that’s what he’s doing.

“But look, we’re already straight there [as they exit the complex]; why are you turning into me? And your right-front is at my left-rear; there’s no excuse for that.

“Here, look at him, just releases the car [steering] to hit me, and then here again, boom! We’re straight. Look at that, look how much room he has.

“Look at that, look how much room he has, and then here we’re straight, and hits me again.”

Select Quotes

PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER:

WHAT A SMOOTH WEEKEND FOR THE 5 BUNCH. NICE TO SEE YOU IN VICTORY LANE PATO! WIN NUMBER THREE, BUT I HAVE TO ASK YOU ABOUT HOW AGGRESSIVE YOU HAD TO PLAY THAT PASS ON VEEKAY TO GET THE LEAD. AT THE MOMENT DID YOU KNOW THAT MAYBE THAT WAS THE PASS FOR THE WIN?

“Yeah, Taylor told me we are fighting for the win. We almost got them in the pit stops, so I said no this is your chance man. It’s so tough to follow just because it’s such a fast and flowing circuit. I knew if I would have the opportunity, it would have been right then and there. I got on my button and got around him into (Turn) five and then I knew if he would get into clean air, we can kind of control the thing. Once we did that it was a cruise to victory lane.”

THERE WAS A LOT OF TURMOIL AROUND THIS TEAM JUST A FEW WEEKS AGO. YOU CAME INTO LONG BEACH SAYING I’M PUTTING IT ALL BEHIND ME. HOW MUCH DID THAT MENTAL SHIFT HELP YOU BEHIND THE WHEEL?

“Man, it sucks to be at war within your own team. I’m glad there’s been very positive talks for the future and man I wanted to do it for these guys. I wanted to do it for Arrow McLaren SP, Team Chevy. They’ve swept this year so far, so I think it’s great for them. Yeah, man I was just tired of being 10th and 11th and fifth. I said let’s get a win under our belt so we can claw our way back to this championship fight.”

RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 3RD:

“It was going really well. The car was really  super fast even saving fuel. Then that last pit stop I was a little too  on the brakes turning into five and that’s where he (Pato O’Ward) got me. Then I lost some time and Alex Palou got me and we dropped to third. Normally I should be the happiest guy on earth with a podium, but now…but we are headed to the Indy Road Course and that’s been good for us, and then the 500. I feel ready and excited to get there.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON 5G TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4TH:

As the race was winding down, I did my very best to take advantage and make those moves early on and get by Dixon and all those guys as quickly as possible. We made some dive bombs to get there. I’m so happy to have this Verizon Chevy up there. I honestly didn’t expect it.

“We just have to keep doing the same thing this year, finishing near to top. We have to qualify better, it will make it a lot easier on us during the race. But this team is working hard. We had better tires near the end and great strategy. I’m just trying to enjoy this as I go along. I’ve been here 17 years. Ready for Indy.”

Race Results

Pos No Name Laps Diff Gap Led ST Engine Points Team
1 5 Pato O’Ward 90 0.000s 0.000s 27 2 Chevy 114 Arrow McLaren SP
2 10 Alex Palou 90 0.9800 0.9800 4 3 Honda 144 Chip Ganassi Racing
3 21 Rinus VeeKay 90 12.4819 11.5019 57 1 Chevy 106 Ed Carpenter Racing
4 12 Will Power 90 15.2616 2.7797  0 19 Chevy 134 Team Penske
5 9 Scott Dixon 90 22.8297 7.5681  0 13 Honda 113 Chip Ganassi Racing
6 3 Scott McLaughlin 90 24.0649 1.2352  0 4 Chevy 141 Team Penske
7 28 Romain Grosjean 90 24.5161 0.4512  0 8 Honda 101 Andretti Autosport
8 15 Graham Rahal 90 31.9173 7.4012  0 9 Honda 84 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
9 27 Alexander Rossi 90 33.2497 1.3324  0 5 Honda 62 Andretti Autosport
10 26 Colton Herta 90 33.5102 0.2605  0 10 Honda 79 Andretti Autosport
11 60 Simon Pagenaud 90 33.7418 0.2316  0 24 Honda 69 Meyer Shank Racing
12 8 Marcus Ericsson 90 34.4738 0.7320  0 12 Honda 84 Chip Ganassi Racing
13 51 Takuma Sato 90 34.9140 0.4402  0 17 Honda 61 Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
14 2 Josef Newgarden 90 35.6807 0.7667 2 7 Chevy 135 Team Penske
15 30 Christian Lundgaard 90 37.0416 1.3609  0 14 Honda 57 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
16 7 Felix Rosenqvist 90 41.6145 4.5729  0 6 Chevy 56 Arrow McLaren SP
17 29 Devlin DeFrancesco 90 42.4511 0.8366  0 20 Honda 33 Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
18 45 Jack Harvey 90 62.3267 19.8756  0 15 Honda 44 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
19 20 Conor Daly 90 63.2947 0.9680  0 22 Chevy 50 Ed Carpenter Racing
20 18 David Malukas 90 63.7435 0.4488  0 18 Honda 44 Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
21 06 Helio Castroneves 90 64.5322 0.7887  0 16 Honda 55 Meyer Shank Racing
22 14 Kyle Kirkwood 89 1 LAPS 26.4858  0 21 Chevy 46 AJ Foyt Enterprises
23 4 Dalton Kellett 89 1 LAPS 11.9135  0 23 Chevy 30 AJ Foyt Enterprises
24 48 Jimmie Johnson 89 1 LAPS 6.9186  0 26 Honda 51 Chip Ganassi Racing
25 77 Callum Ilott 88 2 LAPS 1 LAPS  0 11 Chevy 37 Juncos Hollinger Racing
26 11 Tatiana Calderon 88 2 LAPS 3.5294  0 25 Chevy 25 AJ Foyt Enterprises

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 114.304 mph
Time of Race: 1:48:39.4368
Margin of victory: 0.9800 of a second
Cautions: 1 for 3 laps
Lead changes: 5 among 4 drivers

Lap Leaders:
VeeKay 1-29
Palou 30
Newgarden 31-32
VeeKay 33-60
Palou 61-63
O’Ward 64-90

 

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