{"id":254161,"date":"2026-01-23T20:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T20:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/254161\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T20:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T20:30:10","slug":"biggest-2026-story-at-arrow-mclaren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/254161\/","title":{"rendered":"Biggest 2026 Story at Arrow McLaren?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: This series gathers the Inside Line panel to discuss the major storyline surrounding each NTT INDYCAR SERIES team entering the 2026 season. An installment on each team will appear at INDYCAR.com on Fridays.<\/p>\n

Curt Cavin: Seems everything at Arrow McLaren in 2026 centers on capturing hardware, and that has to be either earning a likeness on the Borg-Warner Trophy for winning the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge or taking ownership of the Astor Challenge Cup as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion. Make no mistake: This team aims for both. It\u2019s difficult to say which honor is most coveted by Zak Brown, Tony Kanaan and the drivers, but the most likely to be earned is an Indy victory given how well Pato O\u2019Ward has performed in his six races. O\u2019Ward finished third in last year\u2019s race, the fifth time he has finished in the top six. His 23rd-place finish in 2023 was the result of a Turn 3 accident on Lap 193 trying to swipe second place from Marcus Ericsson as they dogged leader Josef Newgarden. The moral of this story? O\u2019Ward is damn good at Indy, and even with Ryan Hunter-Reay on the team for the 110th event, he and the No. 5 Chevrolet are Arrow McLaren\u2019s best bet to win. Will he? That\u2019s for three hours on Sunday, May 24 to decide. But he\u2019ll be my pick among drivers not named Alex Palou and the key story of the year for this proud organization.<\/p>\n

\"Christian<\/p>\n

Eric Smith: Christian Lundgaard reaching victory lane is the storyline for me, with the caveat of how it affects Pato O\u2019Ward. Lundgaard (photo, above) didn\u2019t win in his first season driving the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, but he delivered a career-best fifth in the championship and doubled his career podium total with six top-three finishes. That\u2019s notable considering the car he inherited had produced just four podiums in its previous 81 starts. If Lundgaard breaks through with a win, how does O\u2019Ward respond? This has long been his team. O\u2019Ward has delivered the last nine Arrow McLaren victories, and the organization hasn\u2019t won a race with anyone else since James Hinchcliffe in July 2018 at Iowa. Last season marked the first real internal challenge to O\u2019Ward, and while he handled it well, a teammate winning raises a new dynamic. O\u2019Ward is a pro and a genuinely good guy, so he\u2019ll likely handle it with class — but he hasn\u2019t faced this scenario before. Lundgaard\u2019s rise, combined with O\u2019Ward\u2019s consistency and Nolan Siegel\u2019s potential, positions Arrow McLaren better than ever to chase a title. The team could become the first champion outside Penske or Ganassi since 2013.<\/p>\n

\"Pato<\/p>\n

Paul Kelly: I\u2019ll slightly echo Curt\u2019s thoughts but with more emphasis on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship: Is this the year that Pato O\u2019Ward and Arrow McLaren fulfill the hype and potential and step up as true championship contenders? O\u2019Ward (photo, above) no longer is the fresh-faced, ebullient phenom from the early 2020s. He turns 27 in early May, is nearing the peak of his career and has been the lead driver for Arrow McLaren since his debut with the team in 2020. This is Year Seven of the partnership between the Mexican driver and the team, and his best finish in six previous seasons is second, last year. But O\u2019Ward was never a factor in the title race in 2025 \u2013 to be fair, a distinction shared by 25 other drivers not named Alex Palou \u2013 as he finished more than three races\u2019 worth of points behind Palou. Time is ticking, and the INDYCAR SERIES talent pool isn\u2019t getting any shallower. Is this the year the most popular driver in the series and Arrow McLaren finally put it all together for a legitimate championship run?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Note: This series gathers the Inside Line panel to discuss the major storyline surrounding each NTT INDYCAR SERIES…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-254161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}