MADISON, Ill. — Scott McLaughlin is 83 points behind the IndyCar Series championship leader, Alex Palou, with five races remaining, and the Team Penske driver promises to battle it out until the very last lap.
McLaughlin won the pole Friday at the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway for Saturday evening’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500.
The Team Penske star had a two-lap average of 179.972 miles per hour to put the No. 3 Chevrolet on the pole for Saturday evening’s race. He knocked Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing off the top starting position after the driver from Sweden recorded a two-lap average of 179.796 mph in the No. 60 Sirius/XM Honda.
It was McLaughlin’s fourth pole this season, the ninth of his IndyCar Series career and his second straight at WWTR.
Unlike his pole in 2023 when he had to start ninth positions further back because of an unapproved engine change, McLaughlin will actually get to lead the field to the green flag in Saturday evening’s race.
“Yeah, that’s a bonus,” McLaughlin quipped. “We had a focus this morning, well, early noon, just to focus on the qualifying car because we knew we only had a short run before qualifying, and we knew how important it is to be at the front here.
“It went to plan. The car has been great from the jump. We’re in a really good spot, obviously, for tomorrow.
“As we know, this is IndyCar. Anything can happen. But we’ll try to stay on our toes and focus on this last practice session tonight just to get our race balance right, and hopefully, we can come with a pretty fast printer wagon for tomorrow.”
Although Rosenqvist was the second-fastest qualifier, he was one of five entries that received grid position penalties for unapproved engine changes before the weekend.
That means Rosenqvist, IndyCar Series points leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing, six-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing and the No. 51 entry for Dale Coyne Racing will start nine positions lower than where they qualified.
When Rosenqvist drops from second to 11th, that will move his teammate, David Malukas, to the second starting position on the outside of the front row. On the track, Malukas was the third fastest qualifier at 179.503 mph over two laps.
“I think staying out of the pits would be very good,” Rosenqvist said of his strategy to return to the front in the race. “Don’t come into the pits. It’s costing a lot, especially now with the stage pit limiter. I think there’s another three seconds or so loss from going into the pits, on a track that was already very penalizing for that.
“If you can do the three-stopper, I think a lot of people are going to start looking at that early … And especially if you want to go forward from a position where you feel like you deserve to be further forward, you’ve got to start making some different plans early in the race because if you want to save fuel, you’ve got to commit early.”
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was fourth at 179.424 mph in the No. 2 Chevrolet and Will Power, second in the standings and 49 points behind Palou, starts fifth in the 27-car field.
Both Dale Coyne entries will start in the final two positions as Jack Harvey did not record a time in the No. 18 Honda because of an issue with the hybrid power unit and Katherine Legge’s No. 51 Honda did not pass technical inspection.
One of the drivers expected to qualify near the front, if not the pole, on Friday, was Colton Herta, but on the second lap of his qualification run, Herta’s No. 26 Gainbridge Honda smacked the wall in Turn Two, damaging the rear wing and suspension of his car. He was unable to complete the run and the winner of the most recent IndyCar race at Toronto on July 21 will start 25th in the 27-car field.
Meantime, up front, McLaughlin feels confident that he has a hot rod capable of winning the oval contest near St. Louis, Mo.
“We’ll find that out in race balance here in a little bit (during Friday night’s high-line practice), but I think it’ll be pretty reasonable,” McLaughlin said. “The car, as I said, straight out of the hauler was awesome.
“I think we’re in a really good spot, obviously, for tomorrow, to maybe make some points back here, and there’s no doubt in my mind that we can put ourselves back in the hunt with a good result tomorrow.
“That’s our big focus right now.
“But yeah, proud to get the pole.”
There are five races left in the remainder of the season, counting Saturday night’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500. Four of the remaining five will be on ovals and the lone road course race is at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway.
McLaughlin believes he has time to catch Palou.
“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “One hundred percent.
“There’s no doubt I’ve come from basically the back at the start of this year, and we’ve found ourselves in position in less races. There’s anything that can happen in this sport. It takes one bad race from Palou, and everyone is jumping down his neck.
“I think we’re well in reach to get there if we can perform well on the ovals, which I know I feel comfortable on the ovals now. There’s no doubt in my mind we can get there.
“Yeah, I’m 100 percent confident.”