Pato O’Ward’ “feeling bad for fans” after “boring” Indy 500

Pato O’Ward didn’t hold back in his assessment of this year’s Indianapolis 500, describing the race as “boring” and “crap”.

The 109th edition of the Indy 500 featured 14 different leaders, tying third on the list with 2013 and 2023 races.

While the race was generally rated positively by viewers, there has been growing discontent about the impact of IndyCar’s hybrid system on the quality of racing since its introduction in July last year.

McLaren driver O’Ward was unimpressed with the lack of action, especially after a nail-biting finish in 2024 that saw Penske’s Josef Newgarden steal victory from him on the final lap.

"I'm not going to band-aid this. This was the worst Indy 500 I've ever been a part of," O'Ward said. "What a boring race. What a crap race. Pathetic restarts.

“I feel bad for the sellout of the fans, everybody that came here would've loved to see a finish like last year. But no, they were looking at the last place making switches and the leader just kind of chilling there."

The Indy 500 eventually turned into a two-horse scrap between Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson, with David Malukas and O’Ward also sitting in their wings and hoping for an opportunity to pounce.

With just over a dozen laps remaining, Chip Ganassi star Alex Palou dove up the inside of Marcus Ericsson to seize the lead, leaving the Andretti driver to rue the decision to leave the door open.

O’Ward said 2022 winner Ericsson “choked” in his battle with Palou and prevented the race from going down the wire.

"Pretty crap race I would say,” he told Fox. “It just kinda sucks that it went down to the switcheroo for the last position of the race and Ericsson actually kinda choked there and let Palou by and just kind of, he just had to pedal it there.

“I don’t think it’s a finish anybody here would have wanted to see.”

Having started from the front row and led briefly, O’Ward’s race unravelled following a poor restart, which dropped him outside the top 10. 

He worked his way back into contention and was initially classified fourth. However, a post-race penalty handed to Ericsson for a technical infraction promoted O’Ward to the final spot on the podium in third.

Despite the result, the 25-year-old voiced his frustration with the standard of driving in IndyCar.

"I just feel like there was a bunch of non-experience in the front of the restarts and I think some of those restarts were pathetic,” he said.

“Those were not of the level [of restarts] that we should be seeing at the Indy 500.”

“You’re playing a coin flip for what lane you were going to choose,” he added.

“If someone in front of you was gonna have an issue or gonna touch. Probably the worst Indy 500 I’ve been a part of.

“But we fought hard, we made our way up in that last pit stop to maybe give us a little bit of a chance. I think those lappers really helped the leaders. It’s just how the race played out.”