Pato O’Ward’s surge into IndyCar contention has been fueled less by raw speed alone than by a tight, long-running inner circle at Arrow McLaren—race engineer Will Anderson and strategist Nick Snyder—who learned how to ride the highs and steady the lows, especi
When the season swings between triumph and heartbreak, Pato O’Ward doesn’t pretend it doesn’t hurt. “The nature of IndyCar is that there’s highs and lows all the time, and I’ve had my fair share of it all.”
It’s an honest line from a driver who has tasted both extremes—his first career win at Texas Motor Speedway in 2021, and a deeper kind of pain after his defeat after battling Josef Newgarden for the win in the 2024 Indianapolis 500.
But the story at Arrow McLaren isn’t just about O’Ward. It’s about the small group around him—how it holds up when the result goes wrong, and how it pushes when everything starts to click.
When O’Ward joined Arrow McLaren in 2020, he was paired with race engineer Will Anderson and strategist Nick Snyder. The trio have been together ever since. The bond is the kind that only comes from repeating the same work through every kind of weekend: joy, frustration, pressure, relief.
Snyder—who also serves as Performance Director for Arrow McLaren—described it as a team built for balance. “The way we complement each other is really good,” Snyder told Motorsport.com. “Will is a great psychologist with Pato. understands how his mind works. how to work with him when he’s driving on track. Everybody’s got their ups and downs. If Pato’s really down, Will can get him back up. If you get overexcited, you bring him back down. We just sort of maintain that calm level.”.
He tied that balance to the way the group functions as one unit: “When we got the ability to sort of do the driving, do the driver psychology, do the technical side, the three of us just form that trio, it works together pretty well.”
The numbers Snyder and the team share are the proof they offer for how that partnership has performed. Together, they have nine wins, 32 podiums, 52 top fives, 70 top 10s and seven poles in 104 starts.
Anderson’s side of the relationship starts earlier than IndyCar. He said his history growing up racing go-karts helped him understand how to talk with O’Ward.
“It’s something that we’ve worked very hard on as a group. is that area of just how we communicate with Pato. ” Anderson told Motorsport.com. “Pato and I have worked together outside the track to understand each other and make sure that we’re on the same page. If he’s frustrated, I can try to do some cues to hopefully bring him down.”.
O’Ward was the last piece to complete the trio in their current form. Snyder initially joined the team in 2011 when it was under the Sam Schmidt Motorsports banner. Anderson came onboard a couple of years later.
Over time, the relationship has moved beyond the garage. O’Ward has hosted dinners for Anderson, Snyder, and the rest of the team. He also described Anderson’s personality quirks in a way that feels like an insider’s truth—Anderson prefers solitude. but O’Ward still finds a way to get under his skin.
“I love picking at him because I know he sometimes gets uncomfortable,” O’Ward said. “So that’s my favorite part of Will. Sadly, he doesn’t get that uncomfortable anymore.”
He said Snyder is easier to relate to because he’s more outgoing—“after a few beers.”
There’s another advantage that becomes clear the longer the group stays together: memory. Not in the abstract. In the practical sense of revisiting old race moments and using them immediately.
“If I go back to referencing 2022 or 2023 or whatever. they know as good as I do of how. either how that felt or what we did. what worked. what didn’t work. ” O’Ward told Motorsport.com. “So. every lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. regardless of it being just this year or the years prior. it’s knowledge. It’s free lap time at the end of the day. Whether it actually translates to speed sometimes, no. But in terms of experience, that will translate to opportunity.”.
That matters because O’Ward’s preparation for the Indianapolis 500 isn’t just about the present weekend—it’s about what the team has already learned there before.
The driver entering Sunday’s race is 27 years old. and he points to Indianapolis as the place where his career has carried the loudest emotional contrast. He has two runner-ups and two additional top four finishes in six starts at the Indy 500. For the 110th Running of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” he will start sixth for Sunday’s race.
“For me. around this place. it’s safe to say. if I were to pick one place in my career that’s had such highs and such lows. it would be here. ” O’Ward said. “Because the lows here are very low. Even if it’s just a second place as well. Just because the result was still good, doesn’t mean it’s not a low, right?. Here, the reality is the only thing that matters is when you win. And Nick and Will have been a big part of my whole journey here. So, to me, it feels good and I’m happy to be able to share this amazing journey with them. But also, keep fighting. Keep fighting for that, what we’re looking for.”.
For Anderson, the sting of losing at Indy has a sharper edge when it’s fresh. After the tough defeats at the Indy 500, he tried to keep the moment from swallowing the work that came next.
“I think we all have a very good mindset,” Anderson said. “Yeah, we finished second a couple of times. Would have loved for those to be wins, but we still get to play race cars at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”
He described how the emotion lands after the checkered flag and then is forced to move. “It stings when you finish second for such a big race and you want to do better. And I think that’s kind of the approach we’ve taken. I don’t think any of us have really been sulked about it. There’s the moment after the race where it stings and you’re like. ‘This sucks.’ And then you get on with it.”.
The clearest example came from the 2024 Indy 500, which Anderson called “demoralizing.” He recalled the sequence: O’Ward took the lead on the final lap from Josef Newgarden going into Turn 1, only to get passed in Turn 3.
The result left O’Ward leaving his #5 Chevrolet in tears. Anderson said the defeat hit the whole group and that he let O’Ward have the space he needed.
“That night and the day or so after, I’m going to be honest, I just left him alone,” Anderson said. “I was like, ‘You have your time. You have your space.’ And then maybe Tuesday or Wednesday for Detroit, just got back at it. Look, Indy’s a very special place, but we didn’t win that year.”
He said he could still see the damage to the moment: “It was demoralizing in that moment. … It really sucked. I know Pato felt it. You saw him after the race. We all felt it. I kept my sunglasses on. They were on and down. Couldn’t see my eyes.”
Then came the turn in how the team moved. Anderson shifted to the practical question that becomes a lifeline after heartbreak: how to fix what happened.
“It was, ‘Hey, we need to get better at Indy,’ Anderson said. “We were very close. A turn or two away. How do we fix that for next year? What can we try to make better for next year to be in a better situation? On to Detroit.”
Snyder also carried the memory of that Indy 500 pain, but he framed it as fuel rather than a reason to blow things up.
“It’s good, because it’s a kick in the nuts when you don’t win, but the fact we’ve got so many good results, it shows we’re doing a lot of stuff right,” Snyder said. “We’re not going in here and totally screwing it up every year. We’ve got the building blocks that we need to win this race.”
He described their philosophy as incremental, not reactionary: “Indy chooses its winner every year, and it hasn’t chosen us yet. I hope it does this year, but we’re not gonna blow it up and rebuild every time we don’t win. We’re going to keep what we did right and just incrementally try to make it better next time.”.
That approach is being tested again with O’Ward set for Sunday after a last-minute setback. After being collected in a crash with Alexander Rossi in last Monday’s post-qualifying practice, O’Ward was forced to move to a backup car for Sunday’s race.
The backup car didn’t erase confidence—it came with a reminder that the car can still win when the team’s work is right. O’Ward’s new challenger went to Victory Lane at Iowa Speedway and Streets of Toronto last year, as well as sat on the pole in the season-finale at Nashville Superspeedway.
O’Ward said he wasn’t worried about the switch. “This car, I’ve had a past with this car, a good past with this car,” O’Ward said. “I’m not worried. It’s been a great car to me. It’s been a great car for the team.”
Now the focus is on the track’s most unforgiving math: cross the Yard of Bricks first after 500 miles, then see what the celebration feels like for a team that has already learned how to keep going after disappointment.
If they can take the fight to the Field of 33 and win at Indianapolis, Anderson expects the energy to be intense.
“It will be pretty insane,” Anderson said. “It’ll be pretty cool, especially with Pato, a very outgoing person. And then just all of Pato’s fans.”
He said the Speedway crowd would recognize what O’Ward has gone through there—particularly how often they’ve seen the softer side that comes with second place.
“I think all the people at the Speedway would appreciate seeing Pato win here. They’ve gotten to see the maybe softer side of Pato with the second place finishes. And it seems like a lot of people. even if they aren’t a Pato fan naturally. would appreciate a Pato O’Ward win at the Speedway. Just what he’s done here, what he’s tried to give, and how much he enjoys this place.”.
Pato O'Ward Arrow McLaren Will Anderson Nick Snyder IndyCar Indianapolis 500 Josef Newgarden Alexander Rossi Yard of Bricks Detroit Iowa Speedway Streets of Toronto Nashville Superspeedway