Arrow McLaren star Pato O'Ward drops photo dump featuring Thermal Club race celebration and more 

The Arrow McLaren driver Pato O'Ward wrapped up the Thermal Club Grand Prix held in California on March 23 in second place. The 25-year-old shared pictures from the celebrations after the race, among other things.

The young Mexican took pole position for the race on Saturday, which was his first since 2022. However, during the race things did not work out the way the Arrow McLaren team would have wanted them to as O'Ward had to settle for second place.

The 25-year-old shared several images of his moments from the day of the event, with his caption reading:

"Went to the dentist, Champagne chug in the desert, recovered in the sauna, flew through a thunderstorm, played with dogs. ( Not in chronological order)."

Pato O'Ward and Christian Lundgaard made history for McLaren by securing a 1-2 in qualifying on Saturday, bettering their previous hiighest finish, which in was a 1-3 secured by Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenquist at Texas Motorspeedway in April 2023.

While speaking to Paul Kelly after the race, Pato O'Ward explained how Arrow McLaren took a gamble and it didn't work out for them.

“We took a gamble; it didn’t work out for us. We had used our new reds (alternate tires) at the start because we didn’t really quite know what the deg (tire degradation) was going to be like. The blacks (primary tires) really kind of took a turn for the negative at the end of the race, and that was it. We didn’t stand a fighting chance,” O'Ward said.

Pato O'Ward was over taken by the defending Champion Alex Palou during the last 15 laps of the race. O'Ward pitted on Lap 50 to put on the primary compound tire while Palou chose the alternate tire which turned out to be the faster compound.

Pato O'Ward calls Chevrolet-powered IndyCar teams "worthless"

Arrow McLaren driver Pato O'Ward crossed the finish line in second place after being stuck in traffic while trying to overtake Alex Palou. Initially the Mexican managed to keep the Spaniard nine seconds behind him but the alternate tire along with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Driver Louis Foster, aided Palou in gaining three seconds. This annoyed O'Ward, and he went on to comment how the Honda-powered cars help each other while the Chevrolet-powered cars remain selfish.

Duiring the press conference post the race , he said:

"I mean, I hate to whine about it, but it sucks to be the leader. All of our Chevy affiliate teams are worthless with helping when a Chevy leader is coming up on them. Honda seem to work as a team very, very well because Foster was doing everything in his power to keep me behind. Palou gets right behind him, and he just lets him cruise by... that just makes it a bit more of an annoyance rather than a joy."

O'Ward currently stands second in the IndyCar Series standings with 63 points to his name, 39 behind Alex Palou.