The Team Penske driver was spun out on the formation lap after DeFrancesco made contact with McLaughlin’s right rear.
The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver copped a drive-through penalty for the clash and wound up finishing a lap down.
Post-race, McLaughlin confronted DeFrancesco. Their argument was captured by Fox Sports journalist Bob Pockrass and has since been viewed more than 600,000 times.
“It was quite the blow-up in the pits,” McLaughlin said, speaking on the Speed Street podcast with Conor Daly.
“I thought that was very stupid and the fact that it was before green.
“I’m not afraid of coming forward and saying to someone that they’re stupid. I’m happy to take it myself too.
“I went up to Dev pretty heated and I was pretty gobsmacked that he came at me even more, which blew me away a little bit.
“I think that’s what kept me calm because I came over pretty angry and I was like ‘Wow, okay’.”
Some words between Devlin Defrancesco and Scott McLaughlin after the race.@BobPockrass | #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/org5jjWU1I
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) March 23, 2025
In the video, DeFrancesco pinned the blame on McLaughlin. After the fracas, the pair spoke privately where DeFrancesco apologized and conceded he was at fault.
“When I walked back to the truck, I texted Dev straight away. I said ‘When you calm down, you look at the footage, come and have a genuine conversation with me’,” McLaughlin explained.
“Anyway, I was waiting at the truck, he texted me and he came over and we shook hands. Whatever. He apologised.”
On the incident itself, McLaughlin said he was awkwardly positioned and that if he had given DeFrancesco more room he would have been at risk of muddying his tyres.
“Looking back at the incident now, we were still catching the pack and as you know, it gets strung out at the back and that corner is awkward,” said McLaughlin.
“It’s a fast corner with a very tight exit. Going through there two-by-two at the speed we were going was never really going to work. We had so much time to get around the corner.
“I saw Dev coming and I left a bit of room but I’m like ‘He’ll probably back out’ because I have to turn at some point, otherwise I was going to go outside the track.
“I didn’t want to get crap on my tyres so I figured we’ll just sort it out around the corner. And then I saw him in the corner of my eye push up and then once we connected it was an awkward angle and we just got interlocked.
“What I said to Dev was we’re second last and last, we can sort this out coming to the green. We can be single-file coming to green. Let’s just get to the green and sort it out.
“There’s no rush. I’ll give him credit, he came up and said sorry. I don’t regret saying what I said to him because at the end of the day, it was stupid.”
McLaughlin said he hold no ill will towards DeFrancesco, given the high-speed nature of IndyCar on ovals means there has to be trust.
“You’ve got to have some sort of trust with all your competitors, whether you like, dislike, whatever, you have to have some sort of trust,” he said.
“It’s no point holding grudges. It is what it is.”
