LONG BEACH — Two-time Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach winner Alexander Rossi on Friday was asked about the rising popularity of fellow driver Pato O’Ward. Rossi drives for Ed Carpenter Racing and O’Ward is with Arrow McLaren, but the two were teammates with Arrow in 2023 and 2024.
“I think he is at the correct age group and he’s fast,” said Rossi, of Auburn, Calif. “Colton (Herta) is in the same age group, but Colton doesn’t lean into the social side of things. He doesn’t want to, which is totally fine.
“Pato understands how to, like, move the needle from an online presence. He’s fast and it’s important to him and he wants to give fans a good experience with his merchandise line. He wants to be a brand and so you have the combination of all those things.”
O’Ward, who will be racing this weekend at the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, appreciates how popular he’s become. He’s gathered well over a million followers on Instagram and TikTok, combined.
“Of course, I embrace it,” said Mexico’s O’Ward, who, like Santa Clarita’s Herta, is 25. “I mean, we’re in entertainment. That’s what we want to see grow, we want to do well performance-wise. Those are our main priorities, so, so far I think we’ve been doing something well and we just need to keep pushing.”
Now if O’Ward can only win this race. Since it is looked upon as the second crown jewel of the NTT IndyCar series behind the Indianapolis 500, that would seemingly increase his following.
In five tries, O’Ward’s best finish here is fifth.
“Qualifying into the Fast Six and having a good race car — that is what it’s gonna take,” O’Ward said. “I think we’ve qualified well in the past, but we’ve never really had a problem-free race, so, yeah, that’s what we need.”
O’Ward on Friday had the 13th-fastest time of 1:07.9477 in the event’s first official practice. Qualifying is Saturday at 11:30 a.m.
O’Ward is currently second in series points behind front-runner Alex Palou after two races. Palou has 102, O’Ward 63.
TWO-TIME WINNER
Rossi won here in 2018 and 2019 with Andretti Autosport. He’s the last driver to go back-to-back on the streets of Long Beach, and he comes in with eight races here under his belt. Yet, he doesn’t believe familiarity with the course is a big deal.
“Not really,” said Rossi, 33. “I think you get enough laps and, I mean, a driver at this level should be at the limit in about five laps. I don’t think it really plays a huge role, experience here. I think the rookies this year just have as good a chance to win as anyone else.”