Alex Palou, Pato O'Ward spar again over push to pass use in IndyCar

'

INDIANAPOLIS – After Alex Palou and Pato O'Ward qualified on the front row of Saturday's Sonsio Grand Prix, the drivers got into another public spat over IndyCar's push to pass rules and whether Palou was right to use it on a restart at April's Grand Prix of Long Beach. After Long Beach, Palou was one of 12 drivers who were found to have illegally used push to pass on a Lap 61 restart, while O'Ward wasn't. IndyCar went on to change the rule , allowing push to pass usage after crossing the alternate start-finish line on restarts, but not at the beginning of the race.

On Thursday, Palou, O'Ward and Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood disputed the new rule, which now also places the burden on drivers to use push to pass at the right time, is sufficient and if Palou was right to use it in Long Beach. Kirkwood also questioned whether Palou's Chip Ganassi Racing team and Meyer Shank Racing — who have a technical alliance with each other — had an "indicator" that push to pass was accidentally enabled in Long Beach. IndyCar starting grid at Indianapolis: Pole position, qualifying results, start time When asked Saturday if they received clarity on the rule in the past two days, another back-and-forth developed between the two drivers, who led the IndyCar standings in 2025.

Palou: "You were saying it's a rule. " O'Ward: "The problem was that it wasn't a rule. " Palou: "Correct, but you were saying it was a rule.