Arrow McLaren Iowa 250 Doubleheader: Saturday Report

A podium under the lights. 

Not a bad way to end the night, we’d have to say. And after an action-packed day out in the sun, we couldn't be more thrilled. Our afternoon at the track kicked off with short oval qualifying, an hour of pure speed, precision and balance. For Race 1, Pato qualified P6, followed by Alexander Rossi in P7 and Nolan Siegel in P16.

Cue the sunset. With on-track passing options being limited, the team had to put in the work on pit lane. After a series of yellow flags and blisteringly fast pit stops, our 250-lap stint ended with Pato O'Ward on the podium with a P2 finish. Trouble in pit lane cost Alexander Rossi and the No. 7 team lost on-track positions, but both him and Nolan kept it clean to come home with a P8 and P12 finish, respectively. 

Hear from the drivers and Team Principal Gavin Ward ahead of today’s race.

"I'm overall quite happy with how the race went. We lost a little bit of ground on a couple of restarts on the end there, and I think we could have solidly been in the top 10. The No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was super fast, and I was very happy with the balance and all of the changes that we made. It went very well, and it was my first oval race in an INDYCAR so there is plenty to learn. I'll soak it all in, and we'll go try to fight for the top 10, top five tomorrow. I think we have a good shot at it."

Gavin Ward, Team Principal, Arrow McLaren, said:

"It was an excellent day for Pato and the entire No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet crew. It was a huge day for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship moving up to second, and we will keep pushing from there. With Alexander, obviously we're disappointed to have lost a handful of spots on that last stop, but otherwise we could have been on the podium or at least top-five. We will look into that and learn from it. Nolan had a really, really solid oval debut today. He learned a lot and kept his nose clean. It's onwards and upwards for him, and he'll get to start even further up tomorrow which is good. It was definitely tough to pass out there, which is too bad. As a series, we want to put on a better show than that, and we need to do what we can to make it better."

Session Times

"I'm overall quite happy with how the race went. We lost a little bit of ground on a couple of restarts on the end there, and I think we could have solidly been in the top 10. The No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was super fast, and I was very happy with the balance and all of the changes that we made. It went very well, and it was my first oval race in an INDYCAR so there is plenty to learn. I'll soak it all in, and we'll go try to fight for the top 10, top five tomorrow. I think we have a good shot at it."

Gavin Ward, Team Principal, Arrow McLaren, said:

"It was an excellent day for Pato and the entire No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet crew. It was a huge day for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship moving up to second, and we will keep pushing from there. With Alexander, obviously we're disappointed to have lost a handful of spots on that last stop, but otherwise we could have been on the podium or at least top-five. We will look into that and learn from it. Nolan had a really, really solid oval debut today. He learned a lot and kept his nose clean. It's onwards and upwards for him, and he'll get to start even further up tomorrow which is good. It was definitely tough to pass out there, which is too bad. As a series, we want to put on a better show than that, and we need to do what we can to make it better."

Session Times

"I'm overall quite happy with how the race went. We lost a little bit of ground on a couple of restarts on the end there, and I think we could have solidly been in the top 10. The No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was super fast, and I was very happy with the balance and all of the changes that we made. It went very well, and it was my first oval race in an INDYCAR so there is plenty to learn. I'll soak it all in, and we'll go try to fight for the top 10, top five tomorrow. I think we have a good shot at it."

Gavin Ward, Team Principal, Arrow McLaren, said:

"It was an excellent day for Pato and the entire No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet crew. It was a huge day for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship moving up to second, and we will keep pushing from there. With Alexander, obviously we're disappointed to have lost a handful of spots on that last stop, but otherwise we could have been on the podium or at least top-five. We will look into that and learn from it. Nolan had a really, really solid oval debut today. He learned a lot and kept his nose clean. It's onwards and upwards for him, and he'll get to start even further up tomorrow which is good. It was definitely tough to pass out there, which is too bad. As a series, we want to put on a better show than that, and we need to do what we can to make it better."

Session Times