WEST ALLIS, Wis. – When NASCAR announced a new Cup Series race in his native country this week, Pato O’Ward was feeling wistful, resigned and maybe a bit demoralized.
But he wasn’t angry or surprised.
The presumptive most popular driver in IndyCar had three years to get acclimated to the likelihood that the NTT IndyCar Series would be behind NASCAR’s premier circuit in landing a race in Mexico.
When he earned his first IndyCar victory three years ago at Texas Motor Speedway and then battled Alex Palou for the 2021 championship, O’Ward was frustrated at the lack of inroads being made on IndyCar returning to Mexico for the first time since 2007 (when the CART season finale was in Mexico City).
“That was the year for talks to have already started, or at least been commencing,” O’Ward said. “OK, maybe you can’t get it done for 2022, but it should have been a very hard push for it to be done by 2023 and at the latest 2024. Obviously, if I had all the money in the world, it would have already been part of the calendar.”
Aside from embracing his role as a crowd favorite, O’Ward, 25, takes his role as series ambassador seriously. The Arrow McLaren driver (who is among the series’ highest-paid drivers) has invested thousands of his own money to create fan-friendly ticket packages for races at Texas, and the native of Monterrey, Mexico, publicly has lobbied for IndyCar to hold a race south of the border.
But he said those pleas fell mostly on deaf ears until recently.
“I obviously am not fully aware of what everything that goes on in that, but just as an outsider looking in, obviously, there wasn’t enough pressure from the series in order to get it done, to be honest,” O’Ward said. “You can tell it (wasn’t) a priority for them (in 2021). I think now it’s a priority for them, because they’re realizing like, ‘Well, who sells?’ Like, not to toot my own horn, but that’s what the fandom has created in the last few years. And I’m just trying to do my part to help the series, help myself grow my brand.”
O’Ward’s concerns about NASCAR (which will play host to its first international points race in Cup since 1958 next season) beating IndyCar back to Mexico were echoed by some of his star peers before and after practice Friday at the Milwaukee Mile.
“I think that’s a massive miss,” six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon said. “I don’t know how that happens.”
Palou smacked his forehead in an exaggerated motion and echoed O’Ward’s belief that IndyCar should have made a more concerted push three years ago.
“It’s like, everybody is overtaking us, like left, right, left, right,” Palou said. “One hundred percent, we should have been (in Mexico City). I mean I know it’s tough. I know it’s not an easy model. But I think we knew Pato was a big thing in ’21, when he was fighting for the championship. It doesn’t make much sense for me. But for Pato, he’s been growing, so I think we’re like five years too late, and now NASCAR overtakes us.”
Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles said IndyCar remains in annual discussions about returning to Mexico.
“There hasn’t been a year when we haven’t had contacts to test the waters in Mexico and it was not ready, at least not in Mexico City,” Miles said.
Promoters at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course (where NASCAR will race next June) rebuffed the series’ efforts in part because of skepticism about the drawing power for O’Ward and IndyCar.
“What this means is they have a view that we’re not well enough known, nor is (O’Ward) yet, to populate an event at that track,” Miles said. “They just don’t think we have the market penetration yet.”
While O’Ward is “really gaining ground” in Mexico City (where he is featured on some billboards around the metropolis of more than 20 million people), “it’s pretty clear that Pato isn’t as famous in Mexico as the last previously famous Mexican driver,” Miles said, referring to Adrian Fernandez (who brought in fans and sponsors from his native country as a CART star in the 1990s and 2000s).
Miles confirmed that O’Ward hasn’t been involved with IndyCar’s overtures to put a race in his native country.
“He doesn’t know any of this, really,” Miles said of O’Ward. “And he’s probably going to complain that I haven’t dragged him in because he really ought to be the guy to go make the deal.”
O’Ward would like to make the deal himself if he could, but “I don’t have the capital to risk $5, $6, $7 million to put up a race. And I don’t promote the race.
“I definitely think I should be part of the pie because that race is nothing without me, and I put a lot of my own money to promote IndyCar and to grow IndyCar with my fans in Mexico. I deserve a part of the piece of the pie, and I will also help make sure that it’s more of a success than if I’m not part of it. But what can I say?”
O’Ward also believes that with Formula One and NASCAR both slated to race in 2025 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, there will be no room in Mexico City for IndyCar except as a companion event for either series (which would be highly unlikely).
“They beat us to the cake,” O’Ward said. “I strongly believe that we’re not only late, but I strongly believe that there isn’t more room in Mexico City. Like, not only did they beat us there, but now that is not an option for IndyCar. I mean, what can I tell you? I’m not shocked that this is what it’s come to, to be honest.”
The CART Series raced at Fundidora Park in Monterrey, Mexico, from 2001-06. O’Ward and Miles both said the course could be an option for IndyCar, but massive upgrades would be necessary to reach series standards.
And if Mexico weren’t to work out, O’Ward has an international wish list of other countries for races.
“To me, Latin America should be the focus of where we go,” O’Ward sad. “We’d still pack up Argentina. I think Brazil would be fantastic. I think Uruguay could be fantastic.
“It would be great for Japan to host one again. Maybe if we’re already doing the push there, we could do a back-to-back thing to Australia and Japan. I know they’re not big on international races. I am because you just open your horizons with the same product you already have. What you want is to put it in front of other people. I think with McLaren’s presence, a U.K. race would be successful. If we’re doing Detroit, we can do Brands Hatch.”
It’s been over a decade since IndyCar raced outside of North America, though, and any drastic schedule overhaul would begin with addressing the United States with the series already facing a major void along the eastern seaboard.
But with a charismatic star such as O’Ward clearly emerging as the face of the series, should there have been more urgency for IndyCar to showcase its most popular driver in front of his home fans?
“I think the way they do things is not with urgency,” O’Ward said. “At some point, I get it. If you’re impatient, you could end up being too antsy getting to where you want to go. But the series has moved way too slowly. That’s the reality. I respect them. I know they’ve got other things, and when COVID came it was a tough year for a lot of people, but the series is healthy, and there’s a lot of people who want to join.
“Everybody’s saving a bunch of money cause we’re racing with a car that’s more than a decade old. You’d at least want to see we’re getting somewhere, but as an outsider looking in, it seems like a no-brainer that we’re already three years late.”
Three years in which O’Ward has had time to process his disappointment over Mexico City.
“I’m not going to waste my time being angry,” O’Ward said. “I have no pull for that. All I have is a desire to show them that someone’s holding a gold plate in front of you, and you’re like, ‘No, let me have the bronze one.’ I don’t get it. We’re an American series or whatever, but no one cares we’re an American series.
“More people will care if we go international and get in front of more people.”