The Latest Breaking News from Pato OWard

Although no one appeared to have the pace to keep up with Josef Newgarden, who led 92 of 100 laps en route to a Team Penske 1-3-4, O’Ward’s No. 5 Arrow McLaren was lurking for the majority of the race before fading late to finish 7.9121s at the checkered flag.

The season-opening Florida street track event has been a case of honors even between Chevrolet and rivals Honda for the past eight years, sharing four wins between them.

Running the softer alternate tires, the Swede dropped a stout lap of 1m00.3390s around the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit to go top of the leaderboard in the final segment of the session in Friday's practice.

The Swede, who joined Andretti Global over the offseason, put down a flying lap of 51.9512s (115.724 mph) around the circuit’s shorter 1.67-mile layout, which came late in the afternoon session. He logged 83 laps in total on the day.

Palou pounded 70 laps around the circuit’s shorter 1.67-mile layout in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, setting the fastest overall pace in the afternoon session at a 52.0883s (115.419 mph).

Cadillac Racing’s Pipo Derani was leading at the start of the ninth hour but soon pitted and relinquished the reins of the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R to team-mate Aitken.

Matt Campbell started the beginning of Hour 6 as the race leader, with his No. 7 Porsche 963 sporting a 11s advantage over Derani (Cadillac Racing).

Sebastien Bourdais (#01 Ganassi Cadillac) took lead at the start of the second hour, passing opening-hour pacesetter Ricky Taylor (#10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura) with ease into Turn 1, the Acura then falling back as it paid the penalty of its short energy fill and double-stint on tires.

#5 – Pato O’Ward, 4th in the championship standings (484 points) – 17 races