The Team Penske driver found himself facing the wrong way even before the IndyCar race got underway when he got hit by the De Francesco.
The #30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver copped a drive-through penalty for the clash, but the hit left McLaughlin a long way behind the field.
“Everything’s fine, he just drove into my door,” said McLaughlin over the radio moments after the crash.
The Kiwi failed to finish after he suffered an overheating hybrid system, which left him six laps down initially before the car was retired on Lap 53
De Francesco went on to finish 20th and one lap down.
Post-race, McLaughlin and De Francesco were captured having an expletive-laden squabble over the incident.
“We’re supposed to be side-by-side, you f***ing moron,” said De Francesco.
“What are you doing? We’re supposed to be side-by-side. You turned in at me. You closed the f***ing door.”
McLaughlin replied: “You drove into me. You got a drive-through for a reason, Dev.”
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 team’s post-race press release, McLaughlin confirmed he suffered a motor generator unit failure.
“Not the day we wanted for the XPEL Chevy,” said the Kiwi.
“Tough weekend all around, really, but I was very confident going into today that we would have good race pace.
“I’m confident that we could have moved up through the field like Will (Power) and Josef (Newgarden) were able to do.
“Unfortunately, the issue we had with our MGU (motor generator unit) caused it to go into critical mode and we had to sit on pit lane for several laps while draining the battery and resetting everything.
“Very thankful that we got a solid finish to start the year at St. Pete. We’ll just go about climbing back out of this points hole.”
Here's what happened between Devlin Defrancesco and Scott McLaughlin. #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/8hUhZ3XDN1
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) March 23, 2025
The IndyCar Series resumes on April 14. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou leads the standings on 102 points with a 39-point lead over Pato O’Ward. Scott Dixon sits third, 41 points in arrears. McLaughlin is 10th on 41 points, 61 points behind Palou.
