Pato O'Ward delivered Arrow McLaren one of its grittiest Indianapolis 500 results in years, hauling a hastily-prepared backup car from row eight to fourth place in Sunday's 110th running of the Indy 500 — just days after destroying his primary chassis in the closing minutes of Carb Day.
The Mexican came perilously close to making it three Indy 500 podiums in five years, finishing only a few car lengths behind Scott McLaughlin's Team Penske Chevrolet after lining up alongside Marcus Armstrong on the final restart that ultimately handed the race to Felix Rosenqvist.
O'Ward's race was a story of damage limitation from the moment his No. 5 Chevrolet smashed the Turn 1 wall during the final Carb Day practice on Friday, ripping the suspension off the car and leaving Arrow McLaren scrambling to assemble its backup overnight. The team — led by sporting director Tony Kanaan, himself a 2013 Indy 500 winner — pulled an all-nighter to thrash the spare car into shape.
Speaking to reporters before Sunday's race, O'Ward described the chassis as "a different beast" after the team rolled it out for the warm-up.
"Every Indy car is the same — but they're not, you know," he said. "You feel little differences. The pedal feel is a touch different, the steering rack is different. It's a car I've won races in before, so I'm not worried about it. Just need a clean start and clean stops, and we'll be fighting."
That is exactly how it played out. The Arrow McLaren strategists ran a slightly long opening stint to clear traffic, before O'Ward methodically picked his way through the field. By the halfway mark he was inside the top 10; by lap 175 he was in the lead pack. The four-time IndyCar winner stalked Rosenqvist, Malukas and Armstrong over the closing 20 laps and was a genuine contender for victory until the last caution shuffled him out of the lead group on the final restart.
"To come from the back row in a backup car and be fighting for the win on the last lap — I'm proud of every single person at Arrow McLaren," O'Ward said in pit lane. "We rebuilt this thing in 24 hours. We didn't have a single practice run in race trim. The boys earned every position today."
It was a particularly tough afternoon for Arrow McLaren given the team had pre-race expectations of breaking through for its maiden Indy 500 win after qualifying all three cars in the top eight a week earlier. Christian Lundgaard finished 15th and Nolan Siegel was 22nd after a late-race brush with the wall.
For O'Ward, the result extends a remarkable run at Indianapolis. He has now finished P2 (2022), P2 (2024) and P4 (2026) at the Brickyard since joining the McLaren-branded outfit — a level of consistency that means he leaves the 500 still firmly in IndyCar championship contention behind Alex Palou. His 11-month-old son Mauricio joined him in Victory Lane after the race.
The fourth-place finish also reinforces Arrow McLaren's case that its 2026 Indy 500 effort, despite the Carb Day setback, was the strongest in team history — and that the maiden Indy 500 win it has chased since Zak Brown took over the program in 2020 is closer than it has ever been.
Next stop for O'Ward is the Detroit Grand Prix, where he will look to close the points gap to Palou before the Road America-Mid Ohio-Iowa stretch that has historically suited the Mexican's aggressive street and short-oval style.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports](https://motorsports.global/article/pato-oward-indy-500-2026-fourth-backup-car-arrow-mclaren-recovery). Visit for full coverage.*
