What a difference a year makes.
After an indifferent IndyCar Series rookie season, New Zealand star Scott McLaughlin is rewarding the faith of team owner Roger Penske to sit second in the standings after three rounds.
The USA is fast learning what Australia already knows: the 28-year-old three-time Supercars champion is a fierce competitor and the real deal behind the wheel.
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McLaughlin won his first IndyCar race in a shoey-guzzling St Petersburg season opener before finishing second in Fort Worth and 14th in Long Beach.
He has lost his series lead to Penske teammate Josef Newgarden and returns to the track in Birmingham, Alabama on Monday (3am AEST).
McLaughlin spoke to Wide World of Sports about his rapid rise in the IndyCar world and his chances at Barber Motorsports Park.
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WWOS: How are you shaping up for Alabama? Is it a course that will suit your strengths?
McLaughlin: It’s a track that I went to for my very first time, my first IndyCar race last year in 2021. So I go there knowing the track, I qualified reasonably well there, able to get through to Q2 in my first IndyCar race.
And with the knowledge that I’ve taken in over the last year, and obviously the confidence of winning at St Pete and coming second in Texas, I feel like we’re rolling in with a head of steam.
I feel really comfortable going there, I love the track. I think it’s commitment levels are very similar to what we see at Phillip Island or some other street tracks around Australia.
So I think it’s going to provide some really good racing and I think we can have a really good run there.
WWOS: Team Penske are dominating the series so far. What are the dynamics between the drivers now that you have asserted yourself so strongly?
McLaughlin: There’s no line – we all want to beat each other but at the end of the day, for us, it’s one of those things where when one of us is strong, the other one is just as strong and we just keep pushing each other forward.
I think that’s what you’ve seen with all of us this year. (Fourth-placed Australian) Will’s (Power) had the most consistent start to the year, he hasn’t won but he’s been right there pushing me and (series leader) Josef Newgarden.
Me and Josef have won – he’s won two races and I’ve won one – it’s been a really solid start for the whole team. It’s put a good vibe in but we all know that once we put the helmet on we want to get into it and I think we’ve got a really good chemistry there.
There’s no hiding from the fact that as soon as we get in there we want to be the best teammate, or the fastest team car, but the fact is that it’s ‘OK, the best man wins on the day, right?’ And knowing that we all have the same equipment, it’s just whoever does the right job. That’s a really good dynamic in the team.
It’s a competitive dynamic and it’s competitive between all the engineers but everyone’s working together for that same goal. That’s pushed us forward this year for sure.
WWOS: So there’s not the same pecking order within a team as there is in F1? It really is every man for himself?
McLaughlin: Yeah I think because IndyCar the pecking order’s a little bit different. F1 is very constructor-based and then sometimes these guys are just racing for sixth place, that’s all they can do. Where we know that every weekend, we go out, we know that we can win a race, we can qualify 18th and still win the race potentially, that’s how close IndyCar is and how things can completely change during the race.
I think that’s really exciting for not only me and the team but the fans as well. People that watch on Stan Sport, I think it’s such an awesome time in IndyCar’s history right now to jump on board and get amongst it. It’s very cool.
WWOS: There are so many great storylines in IndyCar at the moment – it’s very international, lots of young drivers pushing for F1…
McLaughlin: Yeah 100 per cent, you have your Pato O’Wards and your Colton Hertas, both signed with McLaren, I speak to a lot of people, I know Lando Norris quite well and he’s very well on top of what we’re doing here in America and has an avid interest in what we’re doing and my transition as well.
I’ve got a little bit close with him over the last little bit and it’s very cool to see. F1’s growth around the world has been a great thing for not only them but also for everyone in any open wheeler category around the world, including IndyCar. It’s been huge and their growth here in America has been huge which has been great for us.
We sort of rebound off the back of that and as a group are just getting bigger and bigger. That’s really exciting.
WWOS: How much has this season’s success changed your life in America? Are geting hammered with a more requests from media, sponsors etc?
McLaughlin: Definitely a little bit busier. I think I’ve got to be a bit more consistent at the front before I start getting heaps of requests and stuff but definitely to the point where Indianapolis is such a IndyCar town and I was just there during the day.
People sort of half recognise you, they don’t say anything but sort of want to say something but they don’t. You feel that vibe but it’s cool.
I know that when I’m starting to get more requests things are getting busier and things are looking good on the racing side. I know it’s dog eat dog here – I need to perform to stay here. My whole reasoning is I need to stay here, I want to stay here for the rest of my career and I have to perform.
So the more people that request me for what I need and the sponsors that come running towards my car to try and get on my car, that means good job security for me, that’s for sure.
WWOS: You’ve led a high proportion of race laps in the series so far – that must give you great confidence that the speed is there and it’s just about taking care of details?
McLaughlin: To be able to say we were leading two thirds of the laps to start the season, that was awesome.
To have two different discipline tracks, a high speed oval and a street course and then jumping over to Long Beach – I think we could have had a solid top five there as well but I made a small error that cost us. I actually felt like I drove a pretty good race at Long Beach, to put us in a good spot before that small error.
We head to Barber with a lot of confidence that we could have had three top fives, it’s a good start to the year and we can continue that trend this weekend.
WWOS: You’ve spoken about becoming more and more comfortable with your car – can’t you point out anything specific for the average punter?
McLaughlin: I’m just getting used to the car, it’s hard to explain. It’s just laps, like anything, if someone keeps practicing golf they’re going to get better for the most part.
Same with tennis or whatever, you just continually do the same thing, repeat patterns, repeat things or try different things to help execute things better – you just get a lot more confident with what you’re doing. And confidence as a race driver is a huge thing.
It’s something that people take for granted a lot, how good it is and how much it helps and affects your performance. If you’re not confident with the car, you won’t throw the car in at warp speed and try to get that last tenth out of it – and you really need that.
Going to each track this year, for a second and sometimes a third time, that’s really a good thing for me. I hit the road straight away and work on my race car, work on what I need for the car in the race to make it quicker, rather than learning the track and wasting a whole session trying to learn the track before we get into any set-up options.
That puts us in a lot better stead, we have more time to work on the car and make it faster and get it better and better as the weekend goes on.
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