When Pato O'Ward addressed rejecting Michael Andretti’s offer

The Arrow McLaren IndyCar racing driver, Pato O'Ward, once, back in the day (2019), talked about rejecting an offer from Michael Andretti. The latter was at that time the lead figure on Andretti Autosport.

Ahead of the 2019 IndyCar season, Pato O'Ward was on the lookout for a drive after parting ways with his previous employer, Harding Steinbrenner Racing. In line with this, while addressing Andretti's offer (a potential eight-race contract), he added:

"I've always been grateful to Michael Andretti and his team. Honestly, I never thought we would end up in this situation." O'Ward said via IndyCar.

About a specific part of the interaction, he further added:

"There are reasons why (the Andretti ride) wasn't the priority offer to take. I wanted to see what options I had, but I never did. I never said no to Michael's eight-race offer. Unfortunately, this whole thing has left me without a ride, but I won't give up in trying to find something."

After all the noise around Pato O'Ward's IndyCar prospects in 2019, he finally signed a 13-race contract with Carlin. He ended the campaign in 26th place in the drivers' standings, 115 points.

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Pato O'Ward secured a second-place finish in 2025 SONSIO GP

Pato O'Ward - Source: Getty

Pato O'Ward has been making his trade in IndyCar since 2018. His most recent outing in the sport came in the ongoing 2025 season. At last week's SONSIO Grand Prix, the Arrow McLaren driver managed a well-deserved second-place finish.

Understandably, he was on cloud 9 with his performance, and during the post-race interviews, he touched upon quite a few things.

Firstly, he credited his team for their 'awesome' job during the three-day race weekend, and secondly, he acknowledged the might of the Chip Ganassi Racing team with Alex Palou. The 28-year-old has won four of the first five races this year.

"Strong day for the No. 5 crew and the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. A lot of over cutting and under cutting across strategies today, and we made the most of it. The team did an awesome job to get from eighth to second. No one had the pace to be there with Palou once again, so we’ll take this heading into the big one and show up when it counts for the 500." O'Ward said via Arrow McLaren.

After the first five rounds, Pato O'Ward found himself in fourth place in the drivers' standings with 148 points. While doing so, he has secured a solitary pole position, two top-five finishes, and three top-ten finishes.

Next up on the race calendar is the much-awaited 2025 Indy 500. In the 2024 event, O'Ward managed P2 behind Josef Newgarden, and thus, he would look to rectify that this time around. The 200-lap event will take place on May 25.