NEWTON – The road to a job as an NTT IndyCar Series or NASCAR driver is a long one, but there are other ways for engineers and people to get involved in the racing industry, says Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward.
O’Ward, who drives the signature No. 5 car, is originally from Monterrey, Mexico. He won the second race at Iowa in 2022 and last week won at Mid-Ohio, and is generally considered the most popular IndyCar driver among fans.
According to O’Ward, the road to becoming a driver is the most difficult road into racing.
“It’s more than just picking up a football,” O’Ward said. “It’s very high risk, very rewarding. But there are 60 places in the world to do this.”
NASCAR Cup Series driver Daniel Suarez is also from Monterrey, Mexico. O’Ward, 25, and his family moved from Monterrey to San Antonio when he was 11.
Hispanic and Latino residents make up 7.4 percent of Iowa’s population, the largest minority group in the state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Over the next three decades, Iowa’s Latino population is expected to more than double to 407,000 residents, according to the Washington Post.
O’Ward agreed that it’s important to get more Latino and Hispanic drivers racing. But regardless of a person’s race, the road will be tough, O’Ward said.
“Your chances are better if you have a good base under you that supports you,” O’Ward said. “It’s not going to be a year or two. It’s going to be a 17, 18-year journey and then we’ll see if it works. It’s a huge risk.”
The best way to become a race car driver is to start at age 5 or 6 with go-karts, O’Ward said. But even then, aspiring drivers need financing, O’Ward said.
According to O’Ward, the most important thing is to have a passion for the sport and build a foundation to support a potential driver.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today without my family, my parents, my grandparents, my sister is working right next to me now. But to get to this position, it was always my parents who dropped everything. My father basically dedicated himself to me to make this dream of mine come true.”
According to NBC Sports, O’Ward is paid about $4 million a year. Only about 15 of the 27 full-time competitors are paid to drive, O’Ward said. The rest of the drivers pay their own way by securing sponsors. The same pay-to-drive practice is common for many teams in NASCAR.
“It’s about 60 or 70 jobs,” O’Ward said. “There are billions of people who want to do the same thing. So it’s a very exclusive club to get into.”
But O’Ward said there are opportunities to get into racing for people interested in science and math. Racing teams at all levels of IndyCar and NASCAR employ scores of engineers. Tire manufacturers Goodyear and Firestone also employ engineers to determine which tires the companies should bring to various tracks.
“If they want to get into motorsports in general, there are so many ways to do it,” O’Ward said. “I’ve taken the race car driver route. But I know a lot of people who want to be engineers. They want to be data analysts. As technology advances in racing, it opens up a lot of doors to different careers.”
Roger Penske, a team owner in both NASCAR and IndyCar, also owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the NTT IndyCar Series. Penske Corporation President Bud Denker said young people interested in racing should have an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Like O’Ward, Denker said the driver pool is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world.
But IndyCar and its teams have about 2,000 people working at Iowa Speedway this weekend in marketing, engineering, production and other areas, Denker said.
“People are immediately drawn to the driver, which is the smallest pool we have,” Denker said. “There are a lot more opportunities for STEM than if someone is just a driver. That pool is so small and so hard to get into.”
Bob Baker, executive director of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum in Knoxville, said another way to get into racing is dirt track racing. Drivers from around the world come to race at the half-mile dirt track in Knoxville. Many “sink their teeth into open-wheel race cars there” and hope to move up to IndyCar or NASCAR. But dirt track racing can also provide careers for drivers, he said.
“It’s a great stepping stone for a lot of people,” Baker said. “For others, it’s a career to stay in sprint car racing.”
Philip Joens covers retail and real estate for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, [email protected] or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.
