- Christian Lundgaard, released by Arrow McLaren for 2027 even after two wins and a top-three points finish, said the team’s oval setups favor Pato O’Ward.
- O’Ward called the claim “pure bullshit” in a Spanish-language interview, pointing to his own rough oval results this year as proof.
- The dispute breaks into public view as both drivers chase the same runner-up trophy behind champion Alex Palou at the Laguna Seca finale.
A Teammate on His Way Out Throws a Parting Shot
Christian Lundgaard had nothing left to lose, and he said so out loud. Arrow McLaren released the 25-year-old Dane from its 2027 lineup while he still sits third in the IndyCar standings with two wins and five podiums this season, a decision the team tied to its belief that Lundgaard cannot win on ovals. Freed to speak his mind, and freed to negotiate with any other team immediately, Lundgaard used an interview with Fox Sports host Will Buxton to explain exactly who he thought was responsible for that reputation.
“You need teammates who need the same thing,” Lundgaard said of Arrow McLaren’s oval program. “In my opinion, Scott and Felix are going to have difficulties with Pato in that regard. Pato runs something very different. In my time with the team, the oval performance has only gone in one direction for whatever reason.”
The implication was clear: the No. 5 car gets what it wants, and everyone else adapts around it.
“He Is Full of Sh*t”
O’Ward did not let the accusation sit. In a Spanish-language interview with ESPN Deportes, he answered Lundgaard directly and without a filter. “Everyone in IndyCar is on their own little island,” O’Ward said. “I know Christian loves to say that everything is made for me and he loves to say that the car only goes in the direction I ask for. But that thing he says about the oval program being only for what I want is pure bullshit, as we love to say in English, he is full of shit. It’s not true.”
O’Ward walked through his own season as evidence against the theory. “On most tracks, we are always on opposite sides of the setup. He develops his car and I develop mine, and in fact in several races if one is struggling a lot, you switch to the other’s setup and you do better,” he said. He then rattled off his own oval finishes as proof the program was not built around him: fourth at the Indianapolis 500, 11th at World Wide Technology Raceway, seventh at Nashville, and only the Milwaukee sweep to show for it. “I’ve struggled on ovals all year,” O’Ward said. “If everything were for me, I would have won all the other ovals too. That’s pure smoke.”
Two Wins Was Not Enough to Stay
What makes the dispute sting is how good Lundgaard’s season actually was. He arrived at Arrow McLaren just 16 months ago and turned in two victories, five podiums, and a spot in the championship’s top three, numbers most road-course specialists in the field would sign for immediately. His weakness was narrow and specific: an average finish of 14.8 across five Indianapolis 500 starts and 13.3 across this year’s other oval races, well below the standard McLaren wanted from a full-season contender. The team decided that gap was disqualifying, released him from any contractual restriction, and cleared him to talk to rivals before the season had even ended. In the weeks after the news broke, Lundgaard has climbed to second in the championship and picked up his first career podium on an oval at the Milwaukee Mile, a result that undercuts the very read on him that got him let go.
A Fight for Second Place That Neither Driver Will Admit Is a Fight
Alex Palou wrapped up his fifth IndyCar title in six seasons before Laguna Seca even started, so the only meaningful number left on the board is second place. After sweeping both Milwaukee races on August 30, O’Ward jumped to fourth in the standings with 503 points, two behind Kyle Kirkwood and four behind Lundgaard. All three could still finish as championship runner-up depending on how the finale plays out, which means the driver O’Ward just called a liar is also the man standing between him and the best result of his career.
O’Ward insists the timing is coincidence, not motive. Finishing second, he said, is simply the best result on the table this weekend. “I knew that having a very good Milwaukee would open up that opportunity for me and that’s what has happened.” Asked whether beating Lundgaard was personal for him after the public spat, O’Ward downplayed it. “In recent years that has been automatic, right? I had always finished as the team leader. Christian has had a great year, but whether I finish second or third, I really don’t care. At the end of the day I don’t target any other driver.”
A Silly Season That Already Reshaped the Roster
Lundgaard’s exit is only one piece of a broader shake-up at Arrow McLaren heading into 2027. The team confirmed its full-time lineup will be Scott Dixon, O’Ward, and Felix Rosenqvist, a mix of a six-time champion, a homegrown star, and a proven veteran, built around drivers the team believes can win anywhere on the calendar rather than specialize on road courses alone. Lundgaard’s numbers made him an awkward fit for that plan even as they made him one of the most productive drivers on the grid. A win total and podium count that would anchor most rosters instead became the reason his time in orange and blue ran out early.
That tension, a driver too good to easily replace but not versatile enough by the team’s own standard, is the kind of decision that tends to generate exactly the sort of public friction now playing out between him and O’Ward. Teams rarely explain roster decisions in blunt terms to the departing driver’s face. Lundgaard filled in the blank himself, and O’Ward spent his ESPN Deportes interview correcting the record as he saw it.
What Laguna Seca Settles, and What It Doesn’t
The championship math will resolve itself on track. The argument over who gets credit, and who gets blamed, for a season of oval struggles at Arrow McLaren will not. Lundgaard leaves the team having proven he belongs, with two wins and a podium haul that outpaces most of the grid, and heads into the offseason as one of the most sought-after free agents in the paddock. O’Ward stays, and now carries the job of proving his teammate was wrong about what Arrow McLaren’s engineers actually prioritize. Both men will race the finale wanting the same trophy, for reasons neither of them will say out loud.
For a paddock that spends most of its time talking about lap times and pit strategy, the O’Ward and Lundgaard exchange offered something rarer: two teammates saying, on the record, exactly what they thought of each other on the way out the door. Dixon and Rosenqvist inherit a garage that just watched its two current drivers trade accusations in the media rather than in a private team meeting, and both incoming veterans will be paying close attention to how O’Ward handles the fallout once Lundgaard is gone and the excuses, fair or not, no longer have anyone left to argue against them.
Lundgaard, for his part, leaves with the numbers to negotiate from strength rather than desperation. A driver who wins twice and finishes on the podium five times in his final season with a team rarely struggles to find another seat, regardless of how the exit interview went in public. If anything, the dispute with O’Ward guarantees his name stays in the conversation through the entire offseason, for reasons that have nothing to do with lap times at all.
