Pato O'Ward: Mexico's IndyCar Star Chasing His First Title
Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing IndyCar Driver Spotlight - where we pull one driver into the garage, look under the hood at their career, and tell you what makes them tick. This week: the number 5.
The Short Version
Pato O'Ward is the most popular Mexican driver in American open-wheel racing and the emotional heartbeat of the Arrow McLaren team. He has 10 IndyCar wins, a career-best runner-up finish in the 2025 championship, and a fan following that turns every race weekend into a party. If you only know one thing about him, know this: he is fast, he wears his heart on his sleeve, and he is still chasing the one prize that has slipped away, an IndyCar title and an Indianapolis 500 win.
From Monterrey to the Front of the Grid
Patricio O'Ward Junco was born on May 6, 1999, in Monterrey, Mexico. The surname comes from an Irish great-grandfather, but Pato calls himself full-blown Mexican, and the country has adopted him right back. His nickname, Pato, is simply the Spanish word for duck, a childhood name that stuck long before the racing world knew it.
He came up fast. In 2017 he became the youngest driver to win both the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring in the Prototype Challenge class, doing it at just 17 years old. The next big step came in 2018, when he won the Indy Lights championship, the top rung of IndyCar's ladder, taking nine of seventeen races with Andretti. By 2020 he was a full-time IndyCar driver, and he wasted no time announcing himself with Rookie of the Year honors at the Indianapolis 500.
The Breakthrough and the Wins
O'Ward's first IndyCar victory came in 2021 at Texas Motor Speedway, and it carried real weight. He became the first Mexican driver to win an IndyCar race since Adrian Fernandez in 2004. That win also cashed in a promise from McLaren boss Zak Brown, who had told Pato that a first IndyCar win would earn him a Formula 1 test. Pato delivered, and he has been part of McLaren's world ever since.
The wins kept coming. He backed up that Texas breakthrough with a second victory later in 2021, added two more in 2022, and then put together a career-best three-win season in 2024. In 2025 he won at Iowa and Toronto on his way to that runner-up championship finish. His 10th career win arrived in July 2026 at Mid-Ohio, where he and teammate Christian Lundgaard ran 1-2 for the first team result of its kind in Arrow McLaren history.
By the Numbers
Here is the career so far, laid out in the parts that matter. Every number below is an NTT IndyCar Series career figure.
The Indy 500 Heartbreak
Every driver has a race that haunts them, and for Pato it is the Indianapolis 500. He has been agonizingly close. He finished runner-up in 2022 and again in 2024, and he took third in 2025. Three times he has stood on the podium at the Brickyard without winning the biggest race in the sport. For a driver this fast and this beloved, the 500 has become the storyline that defines his season every single May.
2025 Indy500 : P3 pic.twitter.com/sTv75GFTKk
— Pato O'Ward (@PatricioOWard) May 26, 2025
The Formula 1 Dream
O'Ward is more than an IndyCar driver. He is a McLaren Formula 1 reserve driver, and he has run practice sessions in a grand prix car, including outings at the Mexico City and Abu Dhabi weekends. He first earned a proper F1 test after that 2021 Texas win, and he has kept one foot in the door ever since. Whether the full-time F1 seat ever comes or not, Pato has become one of the most versatile racers of his generation, comfortable in a heavy prototype, an IndyCar, and a modern F1 machine.
Off the Track
Away from the car, Pato is one of the most open personalities in racing. He is loud, funny, and unfiltered, and his emotions after a good result or a tough loss are always real. That authenticity is a big part of why his fan base is so passionate, and why a wave of Mexican flags fills the grandstands wherever he races. He carries his country with him everywhere, and he has turned himself into a genuine crossover star who pulls new fans into open-wheel racing.
Fun Stats
A few numbers that tell the Pato story. He is still one of the youngest drivers with double-digit IndyCar wins. His three-win 2024 season is his career best. And that Mid-Ohio win in 2026 gave Arrow McLaren its first 1-2 finish, a milestone the team had been chasing for years.
The Bottom Line
Pato O'Ward is one of the fastest and most magnetic drivers in IndyCar, with 10 wins and a runner-up championship already on his record. The title and the Indy 500 are the two boxes still unchecked, and until they are, he will keep charging after them with everything he has. Nobody in the paddock races with more heart.
Shop the Story
Pato races IndyCar, and so does our gear. We do not carry driver-specific Pato O'Ward pieces right now, so here is the in-stock IndyCar collection to represent the series he flies the flag for. If you follow the NTT IndyCar Series, this is your rack.
