'Competitive bloke who wants to win': Emotional Scott McLaughlin gets first IndyCar win in season opener
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A few years back, when Scott McLaughlin was dominating Supercars in Australia, Tim Cindric decided it was finally time to sit down and have “the talk.” About his young driver’s future.
An American future.
Weeks after Roger Penske bought a 51% stake in Dick Johnson Racing in late-2014, Cindric received an email from a polite 21-year-old. “Hey, I’m Scott McLaughlin,” the note read. “I just want to introduce myself at some point, and if there’s ever an opportunity, I’d love to drive for you guys.” Cindric was keen on adding him to the always expanding Team Penske stable. After McLaughlin took third in the championship in 2016, he announced he’d be joining The Captain in hopes of delivering a Bathurst 1000 victory and at least one championship.
Turns out, it’d be three.
Very soon into their relationship, it was clear McLaughlin was banging his head on the ceiling of his potential down under. There was little to do other than setting win, pole and championship records in a series with a small worldwide platform. Add in a new American girlfriend and a set of parents with an affinity for the United States, and his future goals were clear – or so he thought.
He’d been dominating Australia’s version of a stock car series, so in his eyes, a NASCAR career was the logical move. Though he’d watched fellow Kiwi Scott Dixon while growing up and fallen in love with IndyCar, a jump to open-wheel was not on his radar.
“Plus, I was fat,” McLaughlin said after Sunday afternoon's IndyCar victory on the Streets of St. Petersburg with a big belly laugh. Twenty-five pounds too heavy, he’d later be told, but Cindric, Penske’s kingmaker, had a different vision.
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“He had his eyes on NASCAR, was always following NASCAR. He knew everything about NASCAR, and yet, when we sat down at dinner, I said, ‘Have you ever thought about IndyCar?’” Cindric told IndyStar. “I know him enough to know that 38-week schedule and the way he likes to live his life with time to himself and with his guys and family and some ‘me’ time, that IndyCar schedule was very much like what he had in Supercars.
“His response was, ‘I never thought you’d consider me for an IndyCar ride.’”
In McLaughlin, Penske and Cindric saw a determined, versatile talent, but one who no doubt would have his work cut out for himself in NASCAR. The Cup car may have been similar to what he raced in Australia, but even some of the best talents in the U.S. – Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish Jr. – tried to jump straight into the deep end of Cup without prior experience and largely failed.
“I said, ‘Look, you’re not the youngest guy at this time, and when you start looking at a NASCAR career, you’re looking at three or four years easily before you’re going to be ready.
“’If that’s something you want to do, we’ll get you ready.’”
Added Penske Sunday: “I didn’t think it was a risk at all, because I knew he was going to get there. Well, maybe I was lucky the way things turned out.”
'That pole was exactly what he needed'
McLaughlin’s flawless run to pole Saturday for Sunday’s IndyCar season-opener on the streets of St. Pete, beating out Will Power (nine St. Pete poles) and Colton Herta (defending polesitter and race-winner), tied him with Penske open-wheel legend Helio Castroneves with 60, regardless of the circuit.
Still, Saturday night, as he meandered through the busy St. Pete downtown, hardly recognized among the vacationers and race fans, McLaughlin’s wife, Karly, said ‘winning’ wasn’t on his mind.
Nice, maybe. But not an overly realistic goal – and that’s important, for someone who’s as hard on himself as McLaughlin.
“After the pole, he said, ‘You know, if I get a top-3, I’d be happy.’ Even this morning, he said a top-5 would make him happy,” Karly told IndyStar. “I don’t really think he thought the win was there.
“Most importantly, he drives off confidence, and after that pole, he was on Cloud 9. That was exactly what he needed.”
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But it had been 12 years since McLaughlin had started a rolling start race from the front and you could tell talking to him Saturday that the nerves were there. “I'll have to make sure I don't overshoot (Turn 1) like an idiot,” he said.
And he didn’t, holding the inside line while Herta gunned it for an outside pass. From there, McLaughlin held to lead the first 26 laps, by as much as 6 seconds – the type of runaway performance Herta showed early-on a year ago in his dominant day where he led more than 90 of the 100 laps.
But as it often does in IndyCar, an early yellow and varying strategies muddied up the picture. Alexander Rossi stayed out far later than any of the other 26 cars and looked, for a time, as if the No. 27 Honda team had finally picked the proper strategy to break a winless streak quickly approaching three years. Then, it was Scott Dixon — far-and-away leading the three-stoppers — who looked as if he had the race under wraps.
But as the green flag laps drew on-and-on, McLaughlin, his engineer Ben Bretzman, Cindric and Penske could start to see the victory taking shape.
“I just felt like, all weekend, I could really do what I wanted with the car, and that’s just a very special feeling for a driver,” he said post-race of topping the timing charts for Practice No. 2 in addition to the pole.
“Last night, I had a great sleep, and I started telling myself, ‘I’ve done this before. Just with a roof over my head.’ Now, it was just a matter of feeling it. And it was after that start, away we went.”
Once Scott Dixon had to dip into the pits with just over 20 laps to go, Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg became a two-driver shootout. With back-markers quickly approaching, Alex Palou quickly slashed nearly a 3-second deficit under eight-tenths with 10 laps remaining.
At that point, McLauglin was on the rear wing of Palou’s Ganassi teammate Jimmie Johnson, who was attempting to stay on the lead lap and not making it particularly easy for the leaders to battle.
Power, who finished third Sunday, said over his radio about Johnson, “Oh, Jimmie looks like he's trying to get a bit of coverage here.”
Even clear of the No. 48, the race only grew tighter. McLaughlin soon approached the No. 29 of IndyCar rookie Devlin DeFrancesco. Heading to the white flag while trying to work around the Andretti car, Palou trailed by 3-tenths-a-second. Simultaneously trying to save fuel and hold off the No. 10, McLaughlin’s car noticeably began to pitch around the corners.
“Those slides were induced by stress,” he said. “It’s a mind game, man, and you’ve got to be on top of it. You’ve just got to believe in yourself.”
For nearly two years, it had been building, climaxing on that final stretch down the Albert Whitted Airport runway toward the checkered. When he crossed it first, McLaughlin shook his fists, undid his visor and screamed. When he emerged from the car, he had to pause his live interview on broadcast TV to catch his breath. When he tried to leap off the car, he tumbled to the ground.
“I roly-poly’ed. I tried to jump, and my legs were jelly, bro,” he said with a hearty laugh. “When I the ground, I told myself, ‘I’m done,’ but I tried to make it as delicate as I could.
“I looked like a wombat man! It was bad.”
A 'competitive bloke who wants to win'
For McLaughlin, it was a release nearly two years in the making. When he last saw his parents, well known in the racing community for their viral reactions to any success by their son, in January 2020, McLaughlin was 26, had only won two Supercars titles and had spent a single day in an Indy car for a test at Sebring. The COVID-19 pandemic was far removed from the psyches of most of the world.
He last saw his sister in his final Bathurst 1000 race in mid-October 2020.
There were some highlights – qualifying 5th on the IMS road course and finishing runner-up in his first oval race at Texas Motor Speedway among them – but for such a fierce self-critic, the lows weighed harder on him. The Detroit doubleheader, where he crashed early in Practice No. 1 and finished 19th and 20th, hot off a spin on pitlane in the 500 ruined a great debut there, was rock bottom.
“I had won straight back-to-back championships, and I know I was a rookie and I wasn't kidding myself,” he said. “But at the same time, it's hard to go from the mindset of, ‘Okay, win every week and that's all that matters, nothing less,’ to going, ‘Hey, I'd love a top 15.’
“I don't work like that. I'm a competitive bloke. I want to win. I want to get poles. I want to dominate races and not even worry about things. I did that for four years, and then coming here, it mucks with your head. I put a lot of pressure on myself, like why isn't this happening, why am I sucking in qualifying when I'm good? I've done that before.”
Added Karly: “It’s crazy to say, but when I met him in Australia, he was doing so well. I’d never really known a ‘losing Scott.’”
That version is no more, disappearing while holding back tears in victory lane on FaceTime with his parents in New Zealand. He and Karly had considered going back to his home for Christmas, but relented because of how much this season meant to him. The fear of getting stuck, should pandemic restrictions worsen, overpowered the longing he had for his two rocks growing up.
Instead, McLaughlin’s parents will visit the budding IndyCar star and watch their first open-wheel race in-person May 29 as their son attempts to bring Penske his 19th Borg-Warner Trophy.
“They’d seen his first wins in New Zealand and then Australia,” Karly said. “For them to miss his first one here, I know it will definitely be cutting him deep, but hopefully they’ll be able to see No. 2 and 3.
“Then, it’ll all be worth it.”
Email IndyStar motor sports reporter Nathan Brown at nlbrown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @By_NathanBrown.
IndyCar Streets of St. Petersburg Results
1. (1) Scott McLaughlin, Dallara-Chevrolet, 100 laps, Running.
2. (10) Alex Palou, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running.
3. (2) Will Power, Dallara-Chevrolet, 100, Running.
4. (3) Colton Herta, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running.
5. (5) Romain Grosjean, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running.
6. (4) Rinus Veekay, Dallara-Chevrolet, 100, Running.
7. (11) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running.
8. (7) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running.
9. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running.
10. (22) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running.
11. (15) Christian Lundgaard, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running.
12. (16) Pato O'Ward, Dallara-Chevrolet, 100, Running.
13. (23) Jack Harvey, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running.
14. (17) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running.
15. (6) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running.
16. (9) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Chevrolet, 100, Running.
17. (21) Felix Rosenqvist, Dallara-Chevrolet, 100, Running.
18. (12) Kyle Kirkwood, Dallara-Chevrolet, 100, Running.
19. (19) Callum Ilott, Dallara-Chevrolet, 100, Running.
20. (13) Alexander Rossi, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running.
21. (20) Conor Daly, Dallara-Chevrolet, 100, Running.
22. (18) Devlin DeFrancesco, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running.
23. (26) Jimmie Johnson, Dallara-Honda, 99, Running.
24. (25) Tatiana Calderon, Dallara-Chevrolet, 97, Running.
25. (14) Dalton Kellett, Dallara-Chevrolet, 62, Did not finish.
26. (24) David Malukas, Dallara-Honda, 23, Did not finish.