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Inside The Garage: Did Pato O'Ward Need A Statement Victory?
Here's what's happening this week Inside The Garage: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (Lexington, Ohio) — Pato O’Ward didn’t seem to carry too much angst about not winning this year, playing his streak of non-podium finishes as something that was just part of racing. But it is hard to deny the perception of O'Ward at Arrow McLaren. He’s the driver who has been there the longest. He’s the one who is also a Formula 1 reserve driver for McLaren. He is a competitor who has come second in the Indianapolis 500 and second in the season point standings, and team decisions appear to be made to lift him to the top. So the fact that he had not won in 2026, and his teammate Christian Lundgaard (who, based on rumblings, might not be his teammate for much longer if his contract doesn't get renewed) had already won twice this year couldn’t be ignored going into the 11th race of the season. "I knew my win was coming," O’Ward said at his post-race news conference Sunday after celebrating in Victory Lane. "Whether it was going to be in the last couple races or in the middle, I don't know. "But obviously I made it happen [at Mid-Ohio]. .... I don't think it's a reason to lose motivation, lose hunger. I know it was just a matter of time for things to kind of click, or at least not go against us." O’Ward needed a statement win, and he got one Sunday. He used a Lundgaard mistake to make a beautiful side-by-side pass about halfway through the event and then controlled the race the rest of the way. "I don't really get rattled," O’Ward noted. "There’s been so much noise, people writing me off already. But the people that actually watch — and they actually know what they're watching — they truly know what's going on. And they really do see that a lot of the times, it can be something that's out of your control. "Honestly, this year there's been quite a bit of that. That's the nature of this sport." It’s also the nature of a fan base that demands wins. "It's not going to be the last time, and it's not going to be the first time," O’Ward said about the podium slump, which lasted 14 races since his last win at Toronto last summer. "I've had plenty of years here where they've been up and down, up and down. "But the most important part was everybody was writing me off, ‘Oh, what a horrible year.’ I'm still fifth in the championship, and this is my first podium. Rack up two or three more, and I'm fighting for the championship." The 29-year-old from Mexico now has 10 wins, and he sits fifth in the standings, 94 points behind four-time series champion Alex Palou. Palou believes O’Ward could be a factor. If he’s going to be a factor, he’ll have to perform well at Nashville in two weeks, where he appeared to have the field covered last year until a blown tire ended his race. "You can see how much a win gives you. And not only on points — motivation, and confidence as well," Palou told me and other reporters after the race. "I've been there. Hopefully not [for O’Ward], hopefully that doesn't happen, but yeah, I see that." O’Ward thinks he can make a run at Palou. "Obviously, it's doable," O’Ward said. "I think at this point last year I was somewhere [around there. And if it's not first in the championship, a repeat of a second would be great. It's not the end of the world. We're obviously still working hard. We're still getting better." As a driver who gets disappointed in the moment, he seems to enjoy the battle and enjoy the competition. And yet there is a feeling that maybe he was frustrated, that he saw Lundgaard win and he just didn’t seem to have things go right. "For me, obviously papaya is a second family, and they will remain to be," O’Ward said about the famed color of the organization. "I always try and give the best I've got. "There's not once where [team principal] Tony [Kanaan] has come to me and he's like, ‘I need you to try harder’ because I know he knows exactly how much I expect from myself and how perfect I want to be. And that's how I do everything — jobs, investments. It doesn't matter what I'm doing. That is what you want to do." As they say, you create your opportunities. But O’Ward has been very adamant that he is focused on what he is doing. And he is also focused on doing it his way. "I keep working hard," O’Ward said. "I obviously enjoy my life outside of racing, as well, which is very important, and along with that, you've got to enjoy it with your guys. "You have to. You never know when it's your last time, your last win together. You never know. It's so important to do that because that's truly why we do this. We do this to win and to compete. What makes it so much sweeter is actually the people that we get to share it with after making these strong relationships within the team." Bowman's Outlook Alex Bowman does not have a deal yet for 2027 to remain at Hendrick Motorsports. After a rough start to the year, including missing four races because of vertigo, he has had back-to-back top 10s. "I'm just trying to do my part to try to help HMS be the best it can be right now and obviously trying to get things turned back around on the 48 side of things," Bowman said on a virtual news conference last week. "I don't feel like I'm racing for my job or anything like that by any means. So yeah, really just kind of week to week focused on trying to get pointed back in the right direction." Bowman would like to get his 2027 plans solidified soon. "We've had a lot of different conversations and kind of trying to figure out what the best thing to do is," Bowman said. "So I would say [I’d like to know] sooner rather than later, "t hasn't been like the first thing on my mind by any means. I have really just been working hard at trying to get things pointed in the right direction." In The News — FOX Sports CEO Eric Shanks, speaking on The Varsity podcast, indicated that President Donald Trump would wave the green flag for the Freedom 250 INDYCAR race in Washington, D.C., next month. Shanks: "With the President there waving the green flag and how we're going to celebrate America ... is going to be something that people are going to talk about for generations. ...It's going to be an incredible two-day show." — Road-racing veteran Colin Braun will drive the Kaulig Racing No. 25 Ram this weekend in the race at Lime Rock. — In a lawsuit for $8.4 million of a $10 million sponsorship deal that ECR filed against Todd Ault (whose companies include sponsors Bitnile, askROI, etc), an Indiana appeal court upheld the dismissal of the case against Ault, but allowed ECR to re-file to try to prove it has a claim. The case simplified: ECR put logos on 2024 Indianapolis 500 cars Ault and his company never signed the deal. Social Spotlight They Said It "[My crew chief] stays on me and makes me be perfect each and every lap and does a great job of keeping me honest. He told me if I win today, I can get some chocolate, so I'm pretty fired up about that. — Chase Briscoe after winning Sunday's NASCAR race at Chicagoland.
Trump Admits Lobbying FIFA Over Balogun Suspension
Donald Trump has confirmed he made three calls to FIFA starting from Wednesday to ensure the suspension of striker Balogun was reversed. The decision, described by UEFA as 'crossing a red line', was made after Trump's intervention, leaving the Belgian Football Federation and much of the football world 'astonished'.
Meanwhile, England secured a 2-3 victory over Mexico in their last-16 match and will face Norway in the quarter-finals. However, the team will be without Henderson for the remainder of the tournament. newssport.cv
President Trump acknowledges effort to overturn Flo Balogun's suspension
Yes, the Commander-in-Chief got directly involved in the effort to overturn the suspension of U.S. striker Flo Balogun.
On Monday, President Trump admitted that he contacted FIFA in an effort to get Balogun back on the pitch for tonight's Round of 16 game against Belgium.
Obviously, it's not known what was said. What, if any, promises may have been made. Or what, if any, express or implied threats may have been made.
Whatever he said, it worked. FIFA exercised its broad discretion under Article 27 of the Disciplinary Code to wipe out what otherwise would have been an automatic one-game suspension for Balogun.
From videos posted by Aaron Rupar on Twitter, here's some of what the president had to say on Monday at the White House.
"So I saw the play, and I'm a person that loves sports, was a good athlete," Trump said. "And I understand sports really well. Really well. And that wasn't a foul. That wasn't even an infraction. That was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other, OK? You can't take your foot and properly, place it on somebody else's foot, when you're going — no, these were two great athletes that got tangled up. And this referee, who is a little bit suspect. . . . If you check his past. I don't want to say that because I don't like to create controversy. But very suspect. If you'd like, I'll provide you with the past. He made a call that nobody could believe. You know, even people on the other side, they said, 'Oh, we got lucky. Wow.'
"And it's very interesting. They say they don't show them in slow motion. And I never realized that. I never heard of that before. That they're not allowed to review in slow motion, because it's so different, because you'll take one little quarter of a second, and you'll see that a hand is touching a neck or you see something. Whereas when you see it in fast motion, it will look like two guys collided, which is really what happened.
"They got sort of entangled. He didn't do anything wrong, and he's our best player or one of our best players. . . . And you gave him a red card. I didn't know what that meant. I didn't think it meant much. Then I started hearing that that means he can't play in the next game, at least. Then they escape. I said, 'Boy, that's a big' — you know, if happened to another player it would have been unfair, but when they take your best play or just about, they have some great players, but — and they say you can't play. That's very unfair. That's, you know, it's one thing to penalize somebody for the game. But how do you penalize them for a game that hasn't been played yet? It's very unfair. You can't do that.
"So, yes, I asked for a review by FIFA. I spoke to a man who is highly respected and, by the way, whose level of respect has gone up tenfold, and he was good before this started. But, you know, he really pushed it in this country. I'm the one that got them to do it. It was not Biden. Biden was asleep. I got them to do it. In fact, it was very sad because I got them to do it, and if the progression was normal, I would have been retired. Now, the Democrats are saying, 'Man, we should have just let him have his way, he would have. We would have had him gone.' But I said, you know, the saddest thing is I got the Olympics, and I got the World Cup. . . .
"All I did, I asked for a review, because I didn't think it was a foul. And, you know, again, I'm good at this stuff. I didn't think it was a foul. I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled. That was not a — that was not a guy punching somebody in the face or anything that, you know, would be different. And I think it's, I think it's a terrible, if they wouldn't allow, you know, a top player, maybe the best, maybe among the best players on the team, to play I think it would have had a big stain, and I related just that feeling.
"I didn't tell them what to do. I can't tell him what to do, but — and I don't believe he made the decision. I think it was a committee that made the decision, and they made the right decision, because, number one, it wasn't a foul. And you want to see a game with your best players. You don't want to say, 'How would you feel if I took, you know, we take, [Lionel] Messi out, with, you know, he ran into somebody. Or we took [Cristiano] Ronaldo. Ronaldo, he bumped into somebody, we're gonna take you out of a game. He's great. Or Harry Kane. Harry Kane, we're gonna take you out of the game, Harry, because you happen to hit somebody a little bit harder than — you can't, you can't do that. If you would have taken him out, I think — I think it would have really stained this incredible champ[ionship].
"We got to have our best players, and they've got — Belgium's got a great team, by the way. We are our best players. And they have to have their best. And if we win or we lose, it's fair. Otherwise, let's say we lost him and we lose the game. It would be a terrible thing. So, I think they made a really brilliant decision. I think the referee's call was horrible. And nobody talks about that. They talk about the red card like it's fine. Nobody talks — the referee's decision to red card. I didn't know what the hell a red card was. When I found out, I said, 'You gotta be kidding.' This guy just hands up, 'OK, your best player is not gonna play next week, or in the next game.' I said, 'Wow, that's a lot of power. That's terrible.' But then I looked at his past, and it wasn't so great. . . .
"No matter what happened, you have to let them use their best players. And the game tonight's gonna be amazing, and we're gonna have a full team, and Belgium's gonna have a full team. And you know what? If they beat us, then they can be really proud. The other way, if they beat us, we'll say it was — I say it was rigged, just like the election was rigged in 2020, but I won't get into that."
While the ultimate outcome may reflect a broader sense of justice, the reality is that the suspension only went away because the U.S. government put the squeeze on FIFA. And FIFA then found a way to navigate its rules to give Trump what he wanted.
If we were playing the World Cup in Russia and Russia's best player was suspended for the game and Vladimir Putin called FIFA and persuaded FIFA to suspend the suspension, we'd be very pissed — even if we sensed the red card probably shouldn't have been given in the first place.
Right is right. Wrong is wrong. Right or wrong, Trump wanted something. He identified the right pressure point, and he pressed. And he used his power and influence to get what he wanted. Again.
The only risk is this. Belgium's anger could manifest itself in more spirited play tonight. Just like the U.S. team did when it hunkered down and overcame being shorthanded by a player due to the red card that was viewed to be unjust.
Rinus VeeKay continues underdog story with fourth-place finish at Mid-Ohio
After starting sixth in the #76 Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR) Chevrolet, the Dutchman leaned on an aggressive tire strategy by starting on the softer alternate (red sidewall) tires. He quickly jumped up two spots on the ...Keep reading
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