Pato O’Ward in the No.5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet scored a well-deserved podium finish in the opening race of Saturday’s Hy-Vee INDYCAR SERIES race. Starting the race from fifth place on the grid, he came through to finish on the podium in third place, and speaking following the race, he commented saying:
“Solid podium for us today, but we didn’t have anything for the Penskes. We need to take a solid step forward if we want to make them sweat tomorrow. I think they were specifically strong in getting through traffic, and I would get stuck. I wasn’t able to really place the car where I needed to in order to get by some of the slow cars. I’m obviously happy with it, but considering how much pace we had here last year, it was a bit of like, ‘Where is it?'”
Alexander Rossi came from 20th on the grid to come home in 10th place and speaking following the action he commented saying:
”We fought hard to get where we ended today in 10th. We made the most of it from where we started, but there’s still more in the car that we need to find overnight before we get on track again tomorrow. The team did a great job; this is the best car over a long run that I’ve had. We’ll take a look at the data with the team and get back on track tomorrow.”
Felix Rosenqvist came from 21st and finished the race in 13th place and speaking following the race he commented saying:
”It wasn’t our best race. We had a few mechanical issues that we need to take a look at before Race 2 tomorrow. We had a good first stint, but then we lost momentum after that. All in all, to gain eight spots to finish 13th, we’ll take it, but I’m ready to get back out tomorrow to race again.”
Arrow McLaren Race Director Gavin Ward commented saying:
“Pato and the No. 5 crew did a great job to get on the podium today. We found a mechanical issue on Felix’s car that affected the handling, so we’ll work on that before the race tomorrow. Alexander had stages of the race where he had really strong pace, but we still have to find a little bit more there. We as a team didn’t have anything for those top two Penskes, but we’ve got some ideas to come back stronger tomorrow.”
For race two the three Arrow McLaren driver start the race from :
- Pato O’Ward – starts P11
- Felix Rosenwvist – starts P16
- Alexander Rossi – starts P17