McLaughlin was running second behind champion-elect Alex Palou when a brief shower came over the oval.
The biggest benefactor of the caution was Christian Rasmussen, who pitted for tyres and surged from seventh to eventually lead the race and take victory.
McLaughlin, who wound up third, said it was the right call to draw the yellow.
“I saw it on my windshield. I called it. That’s a bad situation for anyone on an oval, very dangerous,” he said.
“Regardless, if it was going to be good or bad for myself, whatever, you just want it to be safe for everyone. There are a lot of people talking about it, so…”
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Palou, who led 199 laps of the 250-lapper, echoed McLaughlin’s sentiment.
“I agree. Even though it was not good for me, I agree with the decision,” said the Spaniard.
“Like, we could see quite a lot of drops. Maybe in turn one or turn three, suddenly you spin because they didn’t call the yellow. If you feel it, that’s it, gone. You feel it too late.”
The final caution opened the door for a strategy rethink. McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was running fourth, about four seconds away from the lead when the yellow flag flew on Lap 209.
O’Ward led a huge pack of cars to the pit lane, but it was Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rasmussen who made the most of fresh tyres.
“It’s tough when you’re at the front,” McLaughlin said of deciding not to forfeit track position for tyres.
“It’s a tough decision for anyone to give up that track position. Ultimately that’s (staying out) what we both did. For me, it was a net loss of one. Same as Alex.
“It’s just how the cards fell. I mean, we both probably finish first and second today, but it’s the gods, the IndyCar gods.”
When the race resumed on Lap 222, Rasmussen ripped around the cars ahead of him, including lapped traffic, to get the lead on Lap 235.
“They were updating me on the radio,” Palou said of Rasmussen’s progress.
“I knew that he was fourth. Next corner he was third. Then he was second. He was only a second and a half [behind me], then I started pushing 100 percent.
“I wanted to get at least one more second or try and extend a little bit more the laps. I couldn’t make it. I knew that he was coming and he didn’t [catch] me by surprise.
“Obviously I didn’t want him to overtake me. He was very good on the outside in [turn] one, two, getting great exits. Also [turn] three and four. Yeah, couldn’t do very much.”
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Surprisingly, Rasmussen was the only driver to make any serious headway.
In fact, O’Ward ultimately lost out in the sequence and finished fifth having been fourth. Alexander Rossi made up one place to fourth. However, the biggest loser was Newgarden who dropped from third to seventh.
“It actually only worked for some,” said Palou of the pit stop gamble.
“It wasn’t that black and white. I think it was 50/50. It’s really tough when you’re leading, as Scott said. Everybody stayed out, suddenly you pit from first and you go to eighth.
“There’s no way with lap cars in between we would end up winning. I would still do the same.
“Obviously now if you look at the result, you would say, ‘Why you didn’t pit?’ I think it was a tough decision.
“I just started getting really confident out of [turn] two and out of [turn] four. I was able to pass quite a lot of cars.
“At the end, it was not as easy. I think everybody kind of got to a rhythm, looked or found what was best for their driving style.
“[In] that moment, that period of the race, I was feeling really confident.”
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