Watch: The awkward moment when an IndyCar fan lifts his shirt for Pato O'ward to give him an autograph

A fan walked up to Pato O'Ward after the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and lifted his shirt to get an autograph from the driver on his chest. The Mexican hilariously obliged, while laughing himself.

Pato O'Ward had an underwhelming opening race in the 2025 season on the streets of St. Petersburg, after a poor qualifying result meant that the Mexican started from P23. He was eliminated from Group 1 during the qualifications on Saturday.

Even Sunday did not bring too many happy moments for O'Ward, as the hard tires he started on, were puncured during the lap 1 incident involving Nolan Siegel, Will Power and Louis Foster. But the 25-year-old did manage to salvage a respectable eleventh-placed finish eventually in Florida.

O'Ward mentioned this comeback of sorts on his instagram post, wherein he also shared the hilarious moment when the man came up to him post-race, lifted his shirt, and asked the driver to sign his chest.

"We turned 💩into gold today. Proud of my #5 @arrowmclaren crew. p.s thanks to everyone who came out to support us, you guys are the beeessstttt❤️"

"On my t**s, on my t**s. I'm gonna f**king tattoo that sh*t"", the fan could be heard shouting as O'Ward walked away laughing after obliging the awkward request.

After losing the first set of his tires on lap 1, Pato O'Ward almost got lapped by race-leader Scott McLaughlin, but managed to avoid an embarrassing ending to the race. He eventually finished just outside the top-10, just over 40 seconds behind eventual winner Alex Palou

The McLaren man will look to kick-start his season properly at the Thermal Club Grand Prix later in March, as will the team, following a disappointing outing for Nolan Siegel crashing out in lap 1. But Christian Lundgaard managed a relatively positive result, finishing P8 and even leading 23 laps during the race.

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"We didn't get collected in the chaos but it collected us" Pato O'Ward on the unfortunate Lap 1 incident

Pato O'Ward driving his #5 Arrow McLaren during the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - Source: Getty

Pato O'Ward mentioned after the race that it was unfortunate to get a puncture from the incident on Lap 1, which in turn affected what he could achieve during the race. The Mexican also claimed that 11th was the best possible result for him given how the race started.

Speaking to IndyCar reporter Bob Pockrass, O'Ward shared his feelings about how the race panned-out. Pockrass posted the post-race interview on X, wherein he said:

"Today, in the race, we didn't get collected in the chaos, but it collected us, I would say, and we got a puncture. So that wasn't ideal because it was one of our prime sets, and we had to change the strategy. But I think 11 is the best that we could have done today with what we got thrown at us.”

O'Ward finished fourth in his first season with McLaren in IndyCar in 2020 and then managed to stay in the title fight until the final race in 2021, eventually finishing 3rd. Not being able to claim his a drivers' title even after three more years at the team, he will surely be looking to fight to claim his first championship in 2025.