ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Scott McLaughlin was already established as an international racing star thanks to his incredible career in the Australian Supercars Championship.
With three Supercars championships, 56 victories wins and 76 poles, there were few drivers in racing that had the resume of McLaughlin.
On Sunday, he added one more accomplishment to the list. McLaughlin completed a dominant weekend by winning the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg from the pole for Team Penske.
McLaughlin led 49 laps from the pole in the 100-lap contest on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street course.
RESULTS: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
The race was slowed by one caution on lap 25 when rookie David Malukas hit the turn three wall. By then, several drivers had made pit stops to get off the Firestone Reds, which were losing grip, in favor of the harder compound Firestone Blacks.
By also pitting out of sequence, it also created varying strategies in case of more cautions in the race.
Six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon took advantage of the varying strategies and found himself in the lead twice, first on lap 37 for 12 laps and a second time on lap 66 for 14 laps.
During Dixon’s second stint at the front, McLaughlin was the first competitor behind Dixon, but he had to remain patient as he knew Dixon was going to need to pit.
When Dixon finally pulled onto pit lane with 21 laps remaining, McLaughlin was in the lead. He never gave up the lead for the remainder of the race.
The driver from Christchurch, New Zealand, went on to win Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg for his first career IndyCar win.
McLaughlin defeated defending NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou’s Honda by .5095 seconds. Team Penske’s Will Power was third followed by last year’s St. Petersburg race winner Colton Herta and new Andretti Autosport driver Romain Grosjean.
“Oh, man, just unexpected,” McLaughlin said of the win after hoping to get a top-seven finish in the season opener. “In our pre-event we said top-seven, if we can come out of here with a solid top-seven, that would be great.
“Obviously the goal was changed last night, but it was just phenomenal the way the car rolled out of the truck, and I felt like I could really do what I wanted to do with the car from the get-go.”
The reason McLaughlin reevaluated his expectation level was obvious. By winning the pole Saturday, he tied Helio Castroneves for the most poles in Team Penske history with 60. That’s because team owner Roger Penske along with Dick Johnson owned McLaughlin’s highly successful Supercar team.
Now that he has won the season-opening race, McLaughlin has established himself as a driver capable of contending for the NTT IndyCar Series championship.
“What that does for confidence as a race driver is something that just feels very special,” McLaughlin said. “I knew halfway through that race that it was somewhat — a bad yellow or something was really going to affect us. We knew that we were going to fight there the whole way, and I just had to keep calm and control the race myself, and I felt like we did that until the back markers made it pretty exciting, which would have been great for everybody at home but not for me.
“But it was just a phenomenal weekend. Perseverance. You just don’t give up. You don’t doubt yourself. I knew I could do it. Last night I had a great sleep because I just said to myself, I’ve done this before, let’s just — I did it with a roof over my head. Now it’s just a matter of just feeling it and seeing what I had today.
“Look, I had a great start, got into a rhythm and away we went. I’m very proud, great for Dex Imaging. It’s their home race. Team Chevy gave us awesome fuel mileage and drivability, as we’ve said all weekend.
“I just ended up on my ass at the podium, but that’s okay. Felt a little roly-poly, but anyway, that wasn’t part of the act.
“I’ll never forget it, man.”
McLaughlin’s podium fall was the only thing he did wrong all weekend.
“I couldn’t believe it, I jumped, no (bleep) and my legs just were jelly, bro, and when I hit the ground, I’m like, I’m done,” he recalled. “I tried to make it as delicate as I could, and I just looked like an idiot. I looked like a wombat, man. It was bad.
“You guys hear of wombats? Or a kiwi. Kiwis don’t fly, that’s why they fall over when they come down from the sky. That’s what we did just then.”
It was also emotional for the native of New Zealand. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has not seen his parents since 2020. McLaughlin and his wife Karly, from Queens, N.Y., live in Huntersville, N.C., near Team Penske’s shop in Mooresville, N.C.
After an emotional embrace with Karly, McLaughlin was able to share the moment with his parents back in New Zealand and his sister in Australia.
“Oh, it’s hard,” McLaughlin admitted. “You’re quite emotional on the way in, but mom and dad always listen to the radio on the IndyCar App.
“I gave them a shout-out on the way in, and then Karly, my wife, she always gets them on FaceTime whenever we have a good result and they’re not there. Yeah, we had a good chat. Mom and dad were crying. My dad had his PPG shirt on. He’s like, that’s all I got; I don’t have a Dex shirt. I’m like, it’ll come. I’ll send it to you soon. It’ll get there in six months.
“They’re going to come over in May. They haven’t seen me in IndyCar at all ever. They’ve only seen me on TV and the onboard videos I send back. Mom can’t watch. Mom always has a wine and dad just sits there and yells at the TV.
“I’m very excited for them to come over. It’s going to be a very different perspective.”
Roger Penske takes promising drivers and turns them into winners. Once those driver turn into winners, Team Penske prepares them to be champions.
McLaughlin was already a champion in Australia. On Sunday, he may have made the first step toward becoming a champion in North America.