The three-time Supercars champion knows all too well the ultimate highs and lows that motorsport can bring.
In 2017, he came agonisingly close to winning his first Supercars title with DJR Team Penske only to crash Craig Lowndes out of the season-ending Newcastle 500 and lose the championship to Jamie Whincup for a post-race penalty.
A year later, he stood on the roof of his Ford FG X Falcon and began a streak of championships that ultimately turned his attention to the United States and IndyCar with Team Penske.
His rise has been meteoric, winning the pole position for the 2024 Indianapolis 500 in a Team Penske front-row lock-out. A year later, he didn’t even take the start.
McLaughlin’s well-documented pre-race crash still has the Kiwi scratching his head. Weaving to warm up his tyres, the #3 Pennzoil Chevy spun into the Turn 1 wall.
“It was one of, if not the lowest points of my career – but it’s something that I’ll learn from,” said McLaughlin.
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“I still am a little bit perplexed about what happened in that scenario and how it did [happen]. Never done that before in my career.
“It was tough. The champions are made [by] learning from their mistakes. I truly believe we had a really fast car. I feel really strong on ovals.
“There’s nothing to be I guess upset about apart from the fact that I felt like I wasted a really good opportunity just from a pace perspective.
“Look, you live and learn. The sun always rises. You’ve just got to get on with it.
“The best thing for me the week after that was getting back in the race car and felt really good, even if it wasn’t the most ideal result either.
“Like I said, I think we’ve got really good pace, got good momentum. We just need to keep going.”
Absolute devastation for Scott McLaughlin as he crashes on the pace laps in the #Indy500. pic.twitter.com/4eUiySkvHZ
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 25, 2025
McLaughlin said he has “half an idea of what happened” on the warm-up lap but said he can’t dwell on it for too much longer.
In any case, he’s keen to use it as motivation for the back half of the IndyCar season. McLaughlin trails IndyCar points leader Alex Palou by 147 points in eighth.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver has been the runaway leader, winning all but two of the seven races to date this year.
“For me, I’ve had plenty of low moments in my career and I’ve felt like I’ve come back pretty strong,” said McLaughlin. “As long as I try and turn this negative into a positive, that’s the main thing. I can’t just dwell on that moment.
“At the time, obviously I was really sad. I was just very emotional about the whole thing. But now you look back at it, there’s something in there that I’ll learn from and make me better in the future or whatnot. That’s how you look at it. You can’t look at it any other way.
“If you keep dwelling on it or worry that it ever happens again, you can’t. You’ve just got to go eyes forward. There are a lot of people with worse dramas than I have now. I feel like I am in a really good spot, very happy, I just have to keep going.”
IndyCar continues its season at Gateway for the eighth round of the season.
The Kiwi has typically been among the quickest. He took the pole in 2023 and 2024 but has not won in his four starts there.
His scorecard is strong, however, with finishes of fourth, third, fifth, and second.
“I’m really excited to get back there. Obviously it’s a track that I love and I’ve always gone pretty well at,” he said.
“I go into a place there with a lot of confidence. The way that the season’s going for me right now, I need a bit of a rebound here, just get going. The last two events have been pretty tough.
“We’ll just go in there with a lot of confidence and see where it ends up.”
The Bommarito Automotive Group 500 takes place on Monday at 10am AEST.
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