Pato O’Ward picked up his first trophy in nearly two years when he arrived at Arrow McLaren's team lounge in Indianapolis Motor Speedway last weekend. No, it wasn’t the victory celebration O’Ward had planned for his first IndyCar win since July 2022, but it was unusual: He won by default when Josef Newgarden was stripped of his March season-opening win on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, because IndyCar officials discovered in April that Team Penske had cheated. O'Ward's inherited win is the highlight of the team's season heading into IndyCar's biggest race, the Indianapolis 500, as the slumping McLaren team celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first of its two Indy wins with Johnny Rutherford.
The contempt between Formula 1 and its governing body has softened, with both sides announcing Wednesday they've agreed “to commit to a strategic plan for the future of F1.” FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem told The Associated Press at the Miami Grand Prix earlier this month that his relationship with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali “has never been better” and the two were working to further strengthen an alliance. In a Wednesday statement given to the AP on behalf of both the FIA and Formula One Management, the two sides announced they have developed a working relationship to benefit F1.
It also forced the PGA club pro-turned-cult hero to close his office door at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club, the Southern California course where he's long served as the head professional. It's a tradeoff Block has learned to live with over the last 12 dizzying months. The 47-year-old understands the shelf life for the instant celebrity status he gained by tying for 15th at the 2023 PGA Championship — a weekend that included a slam-dunk hole-in-one and an epic up-and-down for par on the 18th hole in front of Rory McIlroy and the rest of the golf world during the final round — doesn't last particularly long.