Intro To Indy - Team Penske - Pt 4 - Scott McLaughlin

Our final part of the Team Penske series is a profile on their driver. If you've missed them, here's the team link, link for Will's profile, and link for Josef's profile.

For Team Penske, the newest addition to their lineup is New Zealander Scott McLaughlin, driving their #3 Car. Headshot is taken from their website.

Like so many other IndyCar fans, I started to develop an interest when I saw Pato O'Ward at an F1 race on camera. O'Ward is dynamic on the screen, easy to like and easy to root for.

However, over the past year, I think my allegiance has changed to McLaughlin.

Why lies in his story, as well as his personality.

Scott is a true outlier in the racing world, and his story is genuinely unique. Before IndyCar, Scott raced in Australia and New Zealand. He had a grand total of four international races before IndyCar - one in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and three in Sweden. Unlike his teammates Power and Newgarden, there was no GP3 or F3 or anything. McLaughlin is an Oceania representative, and somewhat of a rockstar.

That isn't to say that he isn't as good as his teammates, or anyone that came up the traditional ladder. He did kart - I don't know of a racer that didn't - but his moves were intentional, and his approach is unique.

After his karting days, he started in circuit racing with V8 Supercar Development series in 2008. Kind of akin to the junior Formulas, he slowly worked his way up to the full Supercars series in 2012. This is one of the highest racing series in Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), almost an equivalent to IndyCar.

Once he got there, Scott did what he does best - he chipped away at it. First year saw no wins and had him in thirty third, but the second year brought him a win and up twenty three places in the standings to tenth.

By 2016, he'd propelled himself up to third.

In 2017, Team Penske came knocking.

But not in IndyCar. Team Penske was a presence in SuperCars starting in 2014. With the series having strong similarities to IndyCar, it was no surprise that they were looking for the best.

Scott went up to second in 2017.

Then, he did something truly impressive. 2018, 2019, 2020 - a threepeat of Supercar Championships for McLaughlin and DJR Penske.

Of course, with success and consistency come rumors. Scott has never been someone who has had strong rumors or even tests with Formula 1, but he did have several rumors around WEC at the end of his time with Supercars.

Instead, he debuted at the IndyCar season closer at St. Pete in 2020 in the #3 car.

Just like in Supercars, McLaughlin has slowly and steadily pushed from a middle of the pack placement in his first full year in IndyCar to being in the top five for the past three years.

In 2024 he also took pole position for the 500.

Considering his background, I think that the average person can see why I think Scott is unique in his approach to driving. He's a completionist in the series he participates in, looking to conquer the series he's in and be a master before moving on. Scott did not go outside of Australian racing for a very long time; when he branched out, he stayed in the eastern hemisphere, still focusing on being the best in the Supercars series.

Unlike his teammates and a majority of the field, Scott has never had his sights set on F1. Actually, he's been critical of F1, and especially their behavior towards Andretti Global's entry into F1. A post on Twitter/X (which I will not link) emphasized how nonsensical they were about wanting to expand into the US markets while denying a more well known US based team an entry into F1. This has somewhat been resolved now that Andretti has changed their name to Cadillac and removed Michael Andretti as the figurehead, but even so, quite a fair opinion of that whole situation.

This completionism and singular focus on IndyCar, with no lingering feelings about other series, is very distinctive. This approach has created a driver who has a unique confidence in himself and a drive that has its own style. Unlike Power and Dixon, the main competitors from Down Under, his training being solely Australian, and in a different class of cars, has him drive differently. He's also used to the

He's also intent on making his move to the US worth it. Just as he chipped away at the Supercars title, he's doing so at the IndyCar title. His win at Iowa last year, his first oval, is what tipped me over into McLaughlin territory. His quote about the win making him feel like he belonged, "I felt like an open-wheel driver, but an IndyCar driver is someone that can win on all three racetracks " is what tipped me over into McLaughlin fan territory. He's truly intent on being the best IndyCar driver on the track, bar none. On top of that, he respects the sport and wants to be here only. I like that about him.

That and his live rewatch of Jersey Shore on Twitter later in the season had me cracking up.

All of this bleeds into his personality. Scott is a confident, charismatic and funny person; his jokes land consistently and he's not afraid to make fun of himself. His ability to break even a bit of the walls of Josef Newgarden shows the sort of person he is. Open and curious and willing to learn.

It wouldn't be a surprise for me to see Scott win the title this year. I'm not saying that just as a fan either. His methodical history in other series and also IndyCar states that he's a title contender. On top of that, Team Penske has been looking great in the hybrid era, and all three drivers will benefit.

This is the end of the Intro to Indy on Team Penske. Next up is Chip Ganassi Racing!