Pato O’Ward on his Super Bowl ad, his chances in the Indianapolis 500, and more

Race car drivers are just like us.

Sometimes they need a new washing machine and a new dryer.

However, things can diverge from there. That fact might mean a quiet trip to Best Buy for those who sit in the stands, but it is another story for drivers who rocket around the track. And when you are one of the most recognizable, charismatic, and marketable drivers in all of motorsport? That takes the process to another level.

Add in the fact that you are an IndyCar driver, shopping for these appliances in the Indianapolis area just ahead of May, and that trip might be impossible.

That is the reality that Pato O’Ward faced recently.

“Indianapolis as a city embraces it,” O’Ward told me when I asked him recently what the “Month of May” means to him, and to IndyCar. “I went to Best Buy, like, two days ago. I had to buy new washers and dryers because the ones that I have right now, I’m just fed up with them. And, everybody in the store was so excited. They were super excited that I was there purchasing, but all they could talk about was the Indy 500.”

Such is the life of an IndyCar driver in Indianapolis, when the whole community around you embraces your sport, and one of the biggest events on the entire sports calendar.

“You don’t just get that there [at Best Buy], you get that everywhere,” continued the Arrow McLaren driver.

“You go to breakfast, you go to dinner, you go to lunch, you’re out and about walking your dog. It doesn’t matter where you are.

“You see checkered flags around people’s houses, you see Indy 500 flags. Everybody embraces the Indy 500, and that is unlike any other event that we go to during the year. Because you might see some billboards or posters or whatever, but you don’t see a freaking city [embrace the race],” added O’Ward. “Everyone in the city embraced this massive and amazing event. And I feel like it’s just part of what the history means to Indianapolis and just it shows you that it’s a pretty big deal.”

SB Nation caught up with the Arrow McLaren driver ahead of the 109th Indianapolis 500 to learn about the biggest spectacle in motorsport, what driving a lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway entails, and what a long-awaited win in the 500 would mean to him.

The rise of Pato O’Ward as a face of IndyCar

Something else that is a big deal?

O’Ward himself.

He is not just one of the rising stars in all of motorsport, he is becoming one of the faces of IndyCar itself. His popularity shows in the reception he gets not just when walking into a Best Buy for a new washer and dryer, but at media events, fan forums, at the racetrack, and now from the sport itself.

IndyCar moved to FOX Sports for the 2025 season, with the network rolling out a series of commercials highlighting individual drivers such as Josef Newgarden, Alex Palou, and O’Ward ahead of the new season.

With the network airing Super Bowl LIX between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs in early February, just weeks before the IndyCar season began, FOX Sports saved O’Ward’s commercial for Super Bowl Sunday:

As an aside, how popular is O’Ward? Consider this: At the time of publication, that video on YouTube did not have a single “thumbs down.” You can post videos of nothing but puppies, and it might get a few negative reactions.

But not this commercial, and not this driver.

I asked O’Ward about that experience.

“I mean, the set was like I was doing the TV show or like a freaking movie,” began O’Ward. “It was insane. I mean, there was like 100 people.

“They had a freaking chef.

“They had a chef on duty that was offering drinks and stuff. Like, ‘[H]ey, have this like green juice, have this protein shake’ or whatever.

“So that was definitely a first experience to what it feels like to be an actor.”

O’Ward also had praise for FOX Sports, and how the new home for IndyCar is promoting the series.

“Then just the way that everyone’s seen how [FOX Sports is] pushing everything. You really see a network using all of their tools to make sure that they do everything in their power to make [IndyCar] what everyone believes it can be,” continued O’Ward. “I feel like IndyCar’s a bit of a diamond in the rough and it’s just going to take partners like FOX to really kind of get it out there.

“But, I never thought I was gonna have a commercial in the Super Bowl.”

Managing the Month of May

Kristin Enzor/For IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Every May is massive for IndyCar.

This year it began with the race at Barber — where O’Ward finished sixth — and then the grid arrived in Indianapolis for two races: The Soniso Grand Prix (where O’Ward finished second) on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and then the 500 itself.

It can be a lot for drivers to handle, especially with the additional media attention on, and the weeks of buildup to, the Indianapolis 500. But for O’Ward, May is the only month when he truly gets to just live in the moment and absorb everything that happens.

It’s a combination of multiple factors.

“It’s a combination of a city and a community that really embraces their event, and not just race day, but like pretty much the whole process,” said O’Ward when I asked him about the “Month of May.”

“I think also it’s a combination of experience and experiences that I’ve had there in the past. You know, I’ve got a pretty emotional and deep story with the Speedway, and every year that I go back, it feels more and more special, and it really has turned into a place that feels like home. I just love driving around there.

“I love everything that has to do with the Indy 500, and if it wasn’t for all the fans that really embraced it together with us, it’s not the same. Because I got to live the COVID year when we did it, and it was not the same.

“It’s not the same without a whole community of people that just go to see that event.

“They wait for this event to happen every single year.

“And it’s just an aura and an atmosphere that is unmatched by anything else in the world.”

However, the extended buildup to the Indianapolis 500 — consisting of several days of practice before qualifying, and even more practices before the race itself — can be tough to handle as a driver. Last year, I spoke with O’Ward’s former teammate, Alexander Rossi, before the Indianapolis 500, who has described the “spin cycle” that can take place in a driver’s mind during the process.

I asked O’Ward about the “spin cycle,” and he told me that “experience” plays a big role in working through that.

“I would say experience, experience is one, and just trusting, trusting your guys, trusting your team,” said O’Ward. “I have a great group of people that I get to go to battle with, really, and they put in a little bit extra because they know that I always give everything.

The Arrow McLaren driver then admitted that with all the extra time, comes even more time to “screw it up” before the Indianapolis 500. But that also gives you and your team more time to turn things around if they are not going your way.

“There is so much time to screw it up, but there’s actually also so much time to turn things around if they’re not really going the best, and I think that’s the fine line that you’re always kind of flirting with,” added O’Ward.

And every setback can be an opportunity to learn more, regardless of how many laps you turned in IndyCar.

“I’ve always said that you can never stop learning. There’s always something to learn. It doesn’t matter if you have, you know, 25 years in the series or whatever,” continued O’Ward. “You’re always, always learning, and there’s always something that you can improve on and be better at.”

That is especially the case at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, when both nothing — and everything — can change in the blink of an eye.

“And, and I feel like around Indianapolis, it has such a peculiar way of how it kind of like behaves,” described O’Ward. “Like one day you can be like, ‘We’re great. We feel awesome. We’ve got the fastest car.’

“The next day you go out, not so much changes and you’re like, ‘[W]hat happened? Why is this feeling this way?’

“You constantly have to flow with it.”

Having already compared the experience to an aircraft, O’Ward turned to another mode of travel for his next description.

“If I were to compare it to something else, it’s kind of like being on a boat or on a sailboat. You need to adjust your sails in order to go where you want to go,” added O’Ward. “You can’t really go against it, because then it’s where things really go south. So you just have to learn how to kind of juggle with it and how to work with it.

“But it’s the place that has so much power to reward you like beyond what you can imagine.”

Turning a lap on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

O’Ward has driven many a lap at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

But something he told me during our conversation truly sticks with me.

“You never get it right,” said O’Ward when I asked him about how tricky a lap is in Indianapolis. “You never get it perfectly right, but you try and get it as close to it as you can in order to make the car work as you want it.”

The Arrow McLaren driver then took me inside the car as best he could for a spin around IMS.

“For example, Turn 1 and Turn 3 are usually complete opposites, because if you have a headwind into 1, you’ve got a tailwind into 3, the car is gonna behave completely different. And when you compare that at 240 miles an hour … “

O’Ward then drew a parallel between IndyCars and airplanes, as Nolan Siegel did with me that same day.

“You have to treat these cars like airplanes. The slightest little bit of just wind gust or difference, the car will act on it because you’re going so fast and the cars are so [aerodynamically] sensitive just because of the speed.

“It’s things that you never get perfectly right, but it’s always a constant challenge because, for example, the first part of the race, you can be fine.

“And then you’re like, ‘[o]h my God, what’s going on?’”

That is when the drivers can do things inside the cockpit to adjust, even more so than they do throughout a single lap. But you have to be something of a fortune teller, because what is happening to you on Lap 40 might not be what you are dealing with on Lap 45.

“Then you have to start moving your bar, front bar, rear bar, weight jackers, which basically jacks weight across the car in order to make it move a certain way.

“You’re always kind of relying on your, on your future sense in a way. Like if the car is doing this right now, what is it going to do in 5 laps?”

Drivers have to stay on top of these slight changes and stay ahead of them, because if they do not, the consequences could be massive.

“So you have to stay on top of it that way. If you don’t stay on top of it, you’re in for a ride, my friend.

“There’s definitely ways of, you know, at least hoping that you can make your life a little bit easier or not as hard. But you just, you got to be on it, man.

“The speeds are so fast that it really can go bad, so quickly.”

What does that all feel like inside the car for a lap around Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

O’Ward compared it to being in a tunnel.

A very, very, very fast tunnel.

“I would say the best explanation to saying what it feels like to go around Indy, it’s kind of like being in a tunnel. But it’s not really super dark, but it is kind of being in a tunnel, and you’re scanning so far ahead cause you’re traveling 100 yards per second or so.

“It’s basically a football field per second.

“You definitely have to adjust to the speeds of the cars because —especially like in qualifying — man, those cars are so freaking fast.

“Honestly, you have to think of it as like an airplane and you have to remember going to school and learning in science about lift and physics really, because being well-prepared for that is a massive tool to having a good run really.”

The 109th Indianapolis 500

Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As our conversation wound down, we focused specifically on this year’s Indianapolis 500, starting with the special liveries Arrow McLaren has rolled out for their four drivers.

O’Ward could barely contain his excitement for this year’s design.

“Oh, mine is so sexy. Oh my God, it’s freaking awesome,” said O’Ward.

“It’s a great brand to be a part of, a great team to be a part of, and I think my car looks better than ever. I think it’s my best 500 car I’ve had.”

But can that car win the Indianapolis 500 next Sunday?

O’Ward has been so close to winning the Indianapolis 500 before.

Painfully close.

He finished second to Marcus Ericsson in the 2023 Indianapolis 500, inching ahead of him on the final lap but being unable to make the overtake stick. Last year, he finished second again, as he led 11 laps but was passed on the final lap by Josef Newgarden, the eventual winner.

Still, he remains optimistic that this year will be this year.

We spoke before qualifying, where O’Ward put his Arrow McLaren Chevrolet on the front row for the first time in his career, but even before that great result, he believed he had a car that could win the 500.

“Every time I go back to the Indy 500, I go back with a massive smile on my face because I feel super grateful to be a part of the event, and then not even taking into consideration, having had multiple opportunities to win it,” began O’Ward. “You never know what to expect from your month, but all you can do is just make sure that the opportunities that come at hand, you maximize those.

“And if you do that, [a win] is bound to happen because if you’re constantly in the positions that I’ve been in the last three years, it’s going to happen one day.

“All you have to do is you have to be there. You have to be ready, and that’s what I’m gonna be working at.

“I want another opportunity.

“I know I’m gonna get another opportunity, and, you know, this time, hopefully, we get the timing right and get it done.”

If O’Ward finally wins the Indianapolis 500, his Sunday night is already planned.

“It means that I’m not gonna sleep on Sunday night and I’m gonna, I’m gonna go milk and tequila,” said O’Ward when I asked what a mean in the 500 would mean to him.

Still, his expectations are fairly straightforward.

To just enjoy every moment.

“I want to really enjoy it. It’s a whole process, I don’t think the right approach is to just wait for racing and enjoy that,” replied O’Ward when I asked him about his expectations for the Indianapolis 500. ”All of that just adds on to the experience, and it’s so important to really enjoy that because that’s what’s gonna make your freaking win that much more exhilarating and that much more to the next level.

O’Ward then credited the team around him for giving him the chance to block out everything else, and focus on the Indianapolis 500.

“My core team is has been with me for so many years, and it’s a great opportunity to really forget about everything else, the rest of the championship, you forget about everything. You only focus on what the Indy 500 is and everything that has to do with that.”

He believes that is the best way to approach the Month of May, and the Indianapolis 500 itself. Because as O’Ward knows there are so many factors that can go wrong and, unfortunately in his case, can go wrong.

“And that’s the best way you can approach your Month of May, because no matter what the result is, good or bad, there’s so many factors that you can’t control. It can go wrong, but it’s not worth it to just wait for that race day,” continued the Arrow McLaren driver. “If things don’t go your way, there’s still a lot of things that you can still learn, and a lot of things that you can still get better at and or take on for the future that will help you.

“So I think it’s super important to just live in the moment, man.

“That’s the best advice I’ve ever gotten.

“Just really just live in the present.”