O’Ward accuses Ericsson of "choking" in Palou Indy 500 showdown

Despite being one of the top favorites to add his face to the Borg-Warner Trophy this past weekend, Pato O'Ward ended his Indianapolis 500 run in fourth place.

The No. 5 Arrow McLaren driver started on the front row, but never had the pace to contend for the win. He watched as Alex Palou built up speed and passed Marcus Ericsson with 14 laps to go — a move that ended up being the decisive one for the win. From that point on, the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing driver capitalized on being in the wake of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing drivers Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Foster, who were fighting to stay on the lead lap. Ultimately, he took the checkered flag.

“I had those lap cars ahead, and I was struggling a little bit in the dirty air,” Ericsson explained in his post-race press conference. “Alex got kind of a run on me, but I thought he wasn't going to go for it. And that's the thing that's going to keep me up at night for a while, that moment and what I did and didn't do."

However, O’Ward offered a different perspective on the situation, suggesting that Ericsson could have taken different actions to prevent Palou from taking the lead and providing the fans with a closer finish.

“Pretty crap race, I would say. It just kind of sucks that it just went down to the switcheroo for the last position of the race. And Ericsson kind of choked there and let Palou by and just kind of, he just had to pedal it there. You know, it's, I don't think it's the finish that anybody here would have wanted to see”, the Mexican commented afterwards to IndyCar on FOX.

O’Ward was frustrated with the racing in general during the Indianapolis 500. He called it “pathetic” and said it was not up to the expected level for this event.

“I just feel like there was a bunch of non-experienced in the front of the restarts. And I think some of those restarts were pathetic. Like, really, those were not up to level of what we should be seeing at the Indy 500. It just felt like we were playing roulette in a casino and picking outside or inside. And just depending on what everyone else was choosing, you either got screwed or you made like 10 positions”.

“So, yeah, we got hosed there a couple times. But we made it back up a little bit after being a bit more in the middle. I fought my way as hard as I could. I really did. So, that's all you can do sometimes”.

O’Ward finished fourth in Sunday’s race, marking his fifth top-six finish in six Indianapolis 500 appearances. He has yet to win the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing."