Alex Palou, center, of Spain, talks with Kyffin Simpson, left, of the Cayman Islands, and Marcus Ericsson, of Sweden, during practice for the Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis on Monday. (AP photo)

INDIANAPOLIS — Pato O’Ward smiles as he walks through Gasoline Alley, seeing the Arrow McLaren No. 5 shirts.

Sure, he’s popular, but O’Ward wants something more — to be called an Indianapolis 500 champion.

After three near misses in his past four races on the Brickyard’s iconic 2.5-mile oval, the two-time runner-up is hoping to finally sip the milk and celebrate with all of his fans and everyone else in the grandstands at the Brickyard.

“It’s cool. It’s obviously a big part of why we do what we do, right?” O’Ward said as he tries to become the race’s first winner from Mexico. “We want to be here to entertain people, inspire people. At the end of the day it is the greatest event in the world. I might be a little bit biased. But it’s going down this Sunday.”

Few drivers have come as close as O’Ward without eventually making it to victory lane here. He finished second in 2022 and 2024, third in 2025, fourth in 2021 and sixth in 2020 as an Indy rookie. His only finish outside the top five came in 2023 when he was 24th.

This year, O’Ward thought he finally had the car to dethrone defending Indy champ Alex Palou only to see it, the one he qualified sixth, severely damaged in a crash Monday. That forced him into a backup car.

The good news: It’s the same one he won twice with last season.

The bad news: Palou again is the betting favorite after taking his second Indy pole last weekend, as he tries to become the seventh back-to-back winner in race history.

That means everyone else in the 33-car field will be chasing the Spaniard with four IndyCar titles and three wins this season.

“I know I’m hungrier than ever just because I know what comes with it (the 500 win) and what it means,” the Chip Ganassi Racing driver said. “I don’t feel more or less pressure. It’s not like because I won once, I need another one. It’s more the opposite. It’s more like I want to go back-to-back.”

Alexander Rossi, the 2016 race winner, seemed perfectly set up to win his second race, too, when he qualified a career-best second, next to Palou on the front row. But his crash also forced the Ed Carpenter Driver into surgery for an injured middle finger and an injured right ankle Monday night and into a backup car Friday after he’d been cleared to drive. The Californian will wear a specially designed brace and a protective boot on race day.

“We’re probably going to be able to keep the swelling down,” Rossi said. “Everything is ready to go, the range of motion is staying good enough to do what we need to do.”

Who else is trying to make history?

Four-time race winner Helio Castroneves is making his fifth attempt to become the first five-time winner and at age 51, the Brazilian would also be the oldest winner.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing