McLaughlin Spearheads Scandal-Hit Penske’s Strong Indy 500 Bid

AFP/APP

Los Angeles: New Zealand’s Scott McLaughlin will start from pole in the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, spearheading Team Penske’s effort to put controversy behind them in the 108th running of IndyCar’s showpiece event.

McLaughlin clocked a qualifying record at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with an average speed of 234.220 miles per hour (376.94 km/h), but he can count on being tested early as teammates Will Power and Josef Newgarden line up alongside him on the front row.

Australia’s Power won the fabled race in 2018 while Newgarden captured it last year, diving past Marcus Ericsson in a dramatic last sprint of a race that saw late crashes bring out three red flags.

McLaughlin, a three-time Supercars champion in Australia who made the move to IndyCar in 2020, hopes he parlay pole position into a record-extending 15th Indy 500 victory for Penske, which was rocked when Newgarden was disqualified from his victory in the season-opening St. Petersburg Grand Prix for improper use of a “push-to-pass” power boost button.

McLaughlin was stripped of a third-place finish and Power forfeited 10 points in the IndyCar standings.

McLaughlin said team principal Roger Penske “took it to heart, took it pretty heavily.

“I’m just proud that we were able to rise above it, and we’ll still continue to work to build the reputation. It was a mistake, and we’ll keep working.”

All three Penske drivers said the speed shown in their Chevrolet-powered cars was a testament to work the team had done over more than a year.

“This didn’t appear overnight,” Newgarden said. “Everybody that has been here the last four years knows we’ve not had speed in the cars. We’ve been chipping away. Last year was a big step. Got pretty close, but we were still off. I think this year we really turned the page.”

But all three were aware that a lot can happen over the course of 500 miles, so a little caution is called for when the green flag drops.