WEST ALLIS, Wis. – Pato O’Ward took umbrage with an IndyCar executive’s comments about his popularity and said his efforts to help the series land a race in Mexico City have been rebuffed.
O’Ward said he and his management team had “opened our playbook” to IndyCar and were “very disappointed” at the one-sided communication.
“Since 2021, I’ve been very direct on my aspirations of racing in Mexico and I’ve been very vocal along with pretty persuasive and just kind of getting things in line to get the race going,” O’Ward said Saturday morning before qualifying at the Milwaukee Mile. “Me and all of my team speaking to what is now Penske Entertainment because they obviously own (IndyCar) so without their approval and we wouldn’t be able to make (a deal), but it’s been three years that I continuously push for it.
“All of my efforts have been shut down.”
O’Ward, two-time champion Alex Palou and six-time series champion Scott Dixon were among those who expressed dismay Friday that NASCAR will be holding a Cup Series race next year at the same Mexico City track that also plays host to Formula One.
In response, Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles told a small group of reporters that there were annual talks with Mexico City race promoters who told IndyCar officials that neither the series nor O’Ward was at a level that could command a crowd worthy of a race.
Miles also said it was “pretty clear” that O’Ward’s popularity lagged behind the peak for Adrian Fernandez, a Mexican driver from the 1990s and 2000s who brought many sponsors from his native country into the CART Series.
O’Ward is a native of Monterrey, Mexico, who is widely regarded as the most popular driver in IndyCar, and his current and former Arrow McLaren teammates posted their observations about his massive sway.
Reasons I can think why @PatricioOWard is actually as famous as he thinks he is while I’m sitting on couch.
— Alexander Rossi (@AlexanderRossi) August 31, 2024
1. Has fan bases so loud that when they chant we can’t actually complete an engineering debrief. In Portland of all places.
2. Needs his own merchandise tent because…
O’Ward said he felt Miles unfairly was blaming him for the lack of momentum for a race in Mexico City.
“And that’s not the point, saying that I’m not famous enough to pack up a whole place,” he said. “That’s just throwing your series under the bus, because you should want to go to Mexico, you should want to go international because you believe in your series, not because you believe just in one of your 27 drivers. And I’m just trying to do my part in the best that I can.”
“I’m very close to a lot of the guys down there, to actually the promoter of Formula One, and there hasn’t been one person that I ran into that says like, ‘Let’s just wait (on an InyCar race). Let’s wait a little bit.’ Everyone’s like, ‘When are we going to get (IndyCar) down here?’ ”
Miles released a statement Saturday morning clarifying IndyCar’s view of O’Ward’s fan base.
“As I said repeatedly yesterday, Pato is a natural star, and his popularity is tremendous and growing,” Miles said. “It’s unfortunate that a few of my additional remarks failed to convey anything other than this viewpoint. He is a marquee personality for our series and a terrific partner in our marketing and promotional efforts. We continue to invest in our drivers, and Pato absolutely continues to be a primary individual we direct resources and support to.
“In summary, Mexico remains a market of heavy interest, and we believe there will be an amazing IndyCar race weekend there sooner rather than later. Pato is a superstar, and his popularity and talent will be critical to making this happen.”
O’Ward said IndyCar also had shut down a streaming channel that he had created to make his on-board camera easily accessible and free viewing for fans in Mexico.
“There’s been a lot of pushing from my side,” he said. “I want to be involved. I want to make sure this is a success. It’s all from good intentions; my intention was never to make an attack in any way.
When asked directly about Miles’ comments on Fernandez, O’Ward said, “Firstly, I’m so glad the CEO of IndyCar is so supportive. Man, like, comparison is a thief of joy. I’m not going to sit here and argue against two very different personalities, two very different times.
“I believe the purpose of going to Mexico is to help everyone and to help everything grow, but my mentality has always been how can I be better? How can we all be better? How can we get bigger? How can we make it a better experience for other people? Because we’re in entertainment, man. As much as we love to race and we’re here to win, all of our efforts go into that, there’s a lot of efforts that actually go into making the sport grow bigger because that’s truly what is going to allow us to keep going.”