INDIANAPOLIS — As testing opened for the 109th Indianapolis 500, Scott McLaughlin showed the same speed he had during last year’s month of May.
The Team Penske driver, who won the pole for last year’s Indy 500 and finished sixth in the race, turned the fastest lap during Thursday morning’s Fast Friday qualifying simulation practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
McLaughlin ran a lap of 232.686 mph/38.6788 seconds to lead the two-hour session. The New Zealand driver said he drove the same exact car that he ran in last year’s Indianapolis 500.
“Same car. Exactly same car. Hasn’t touched a piece of tarmac since May here,” McLaughlin reported. “Pretty happy to have that. It shows in some of the balance numbers as well. We had a pretty solid race car or read straightaway. That’s a good feeling.
“For me as a driver, getting out and up to speed, understanding all this other stuff that comes with it. As I said, it’s going to be a lot busier now, which is cool, but you want to be on top of things. I feel like having that opportunity to come here with a similar car and get going has been good.”
McLaughlin talked about the changes to the car because of the addition of hybrid technology that was not available last May.
“Yeah, look, overall really solid balance to kick off the month of May,” McLaughlin said. “The car is certainly different with the extra weight and whatnot. I think speaking to a lot of the drivers, I think we all concur the same thoughts: it’s different.
“It’s fine, fun to get used to and understand it. I feel like I really honed in on a lot of things at a low intensity level just to feel out the car and see where we’re at.
“Qualifying is going to be proper in terms of just what you need to do on the lap and thinking about what the car’s doing, the degradation of the tires with the heavier car. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
McLaughlin said his team benefitted from warmer weather during the test, which simulates the expected conditions for the May 25 Indianapolis 500.
“I said to my guys before, it’s so nice going here and sort of understanding what I want, what feels right, remembering changes we made before,” McLaughlin said. “Definitely experience is a good thing. But yeah, I think this is the best weather we’ve had in probably three, four years, at least the time I’ve been here doing the Open Test. Warm, much like what we might see in May. But you just never know with Indiana.
“Yeah, we’ll look at the data and figure it all out. I think we’re in a really good spot.”
