Pato O’Ward is ‘ready for the street fight’ at Freedom 250

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The first hour of practice wrapped at the IndyCar Freedom 250 with Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood topping the timing sheets ahead of the driver he is chasing in the title race, Alex Palou.

But as expected, the big story after the 90-minute practice session was the track surface, and in particular the bumps the drivers will need to deal with on the seven-turn circuit.

“Very bumpy, huge bumps heading into turn two and turn six. Massive bumps that are going to spice things up,” said Palou to the media, including SB Nation, following the practice session.

“I think it’s actually going to create good racing just because it’s quite tough to go over there and have good braking and also have good traction when the bumps are on exits.”

Palou then outlined for the media just where the biggest bumps are on the 1.7-mile circuit.

“I would say probably heading into turn two on the straight, it’s very bumpy. Even exit of one there’s a huge bump that I don’t think you can avoid. Heading into six, as well, huge bump,” said the championship leader.

Palou also believes that there are several overtaking opportunities on the circuit, which could make for some exciting racing on Sunday.

“I think there’s quite a lot of passing places. Turn two, I mean, you can brake deep, super deep. That could be a passing opportunity. I think turn three and four, it’s too optimistic. Heading to turn five, that’s for sure a passing place. Turn six no. Turn one probably,” said Palou. “There’s two really good chances with turn two and turn five. There could be an extra one if you go heading to turn one.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of action. I see that just having a wide track, it’s just going to allow us to have more passing than, for example, Detroit. It’s so narrow that even if you are so much faster, you can just block so much easier. Here, if you’re not going to have the pace, they’re going to overtake you.”

Pato O’Ward, who was 18th-fastest in the first practice session, described the circuit as having a lot of “character” when he met with the media.

“It’s got a lot of character, man. It’s obviously a very short layout. It was exciting out there. I was looking forward to the evolution that we saw going from wets to the dry,” said O’Ward.

Like Palou, O’Ward spent the bulk of his media session talking about the bumps on the track.

“We got quite a bit of bumps on the exit of turn one, quite a bit of bumps going into two, the straightaway. I would say that’s taken over a little bit of what the characteristic of what this track is,” said O’Ward.

“There’s certain ones that are right where maybe the car doesn’t love it all the time. That’s a little bit of probably what we’re going to be working around.”

O’Ward also talked about the conditions for the drivers. The practice session began with cloudy skies and rain, but slowly the rain eased, and humidity took over. Anyone who has spent any time in Washington, D.C. during the month of August knows exactly what I’m talking about.

The Arrow McLaren driver outlined how staying hydrated will be critical this weekend.

“Physically it’s humid out there, man. We’re going to lose a lot of water, a lot of water. We need to be well-hydrated. That’s a good point. I need to get my drink bottle right now and keep on hydrating. It’s the lightest I’ve weighed in all year right now at the weigh-in,” said O’Ward.

“It’s going to be humid, it’s going to be physical. Every challenge that a street course usually throws at you. It’s bumpy. You got a bunch of sweat inside of the helmet. You’re bouncing up and down in there. It gets pretty rough, gets pretty aggressive.

“Yeah, I expect it to be a tough race.”

Still, the Arrow McLaren driver is ready for the challenge, bumps and all.

“Yeah, I’m ready for the street fight, man. I train really hard when I’m home and I train really hard in the off-season,” added O’Ward. “I feel like these situations are what I try and prepare myself to be able to withstand. Without it, being a situation where it makes you worse.”

O’Ward and the rest of the IndyCar grid has one more practice session to get familiar with the track, before Saturday afternoon’s qualifying runs.