IndyCar star Pato O'Ward calls for INTERNATIONAL races as striking claim made

NASCAR

IndyCar star calls for INTERNATIONAL races as striking claim made

The Arrow McLaren driver has been discussing how IndyCar can reach a broader audience

Simmey Hannifin Donaldson

Saturday 24 August 2024 04:00

Arrow McLaren star Pato O'Ward has called for IndyCar to go global and host races internationally claiming that the majority of drivers would be in favor of doing so.

Currently, IndyCar races purely in North America, with the majority of races in the United States, and one in Canada.

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However, the #5 driver made a striking claim, explaining that he feels the vast majority of the current drivers would be keen to race abroad in what would be a big change to the current calendar.

“Almost everybody would be pretty keen to go international,” the Mexican recently explained on The Elizabeth + Ash Show.

O'Ward went on to add that he feels international races could help IndyCar expand their reach and grow the popularity of the series.

“[IndyCar] can’t be compared to Formula 1, because they go worldwide. They’ve got a few races in the US, but they don’t have 17 races in the US," he said.

“I guarantee you, if we had one race in every continent, it [growth] would be easier to achieve because not everything is concentrated in one country.”

IndyCar currently races in the US and Canada

Will IndyCar ever race overseas?

The possibility of IndyCar racing outside of the United States and Canada has been touted previously, with a non-points scoring race in Argentina ruled out earlier in 2024.

However, last month, series chief Mark Miles did hint that there are talks taking place over potential international races.

"International needs to be defined from my perspective," Miles told Blackbook Motorsport. "IndyCar has and will continue to be a North American series. So we race in Toronto – as a US citizen, I don’t think that’s international for these purposes,"

Just four races remain in the 2024 IndyCar season

"We could very well go to Mexico, and Mexico analogous to Canada, we would drive to it. Frankly, Indianapolis to Mexico City is 100 miles less than Indianapolis to LA. We’re working on that and it’s possible we could get there. But from the way we think of this as a North American championship, it isn’t any different than Portland.

"The idea of creating something new that would be more of an international series in the months available to us after the IndyCar championship is decided continues to be something that we think about and work on."

Whilst it seems like there are no immediate plans, the fact that both drivers and key figures within the series are discussing the possibility means the prospect of international races has to be taken seriously.

O'Ward would surely love an expansion into Mexico given it would be a home race for the McLaren star.

Formula 1 IndyCar Pato O'Ward