Social media has swirled with rumours of a brewing feud between the Team Penske teammates over a variety of incidents this year.
Late last season, McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden stopped making their Bus Bro video series but the pair have featured together in Team Penske-produced content since.
The year began badly for the team when they were found to have breached push-to-pass protocols.
McLaughlin and Newgarden were disqualified while Power was docked 10 points in the drivers’ championship.
On track, there have been skirmishes too.
McLaughlin and Power got into each other at Laguna Seca. McLaughlin spun and fell from a potential sixth place finish to 22nd. Power went on to finish seventh.
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More recently, Power collided with McLaughlin on the streets of Toronto while both fighting for a potential podium.
McLaughlin was classified 16th while Power copped a drive-through penalty and wound up 12th.
The latest incident saw Power blame Newgarden for a race restart pile-up that took the Australian out of the race.
Frustration boiled over.#INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/bDsvMHQWQa
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) August 18, 2024
There were claims that Newgarden varied his speed on the restart but IndyCar officials confirmed the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner’s pace didn’t waver.
Power pointed his middle finger at Newgarden and stormed off and continued his tirade behind the pit lane.
“We’re big boys,” said McLaughlin.
“It is what it is. It’s just hot. Hot under the collar. Getting to the business end of the season. We all know Will, he wears his emotions on his sleeve. That’s why we love him.
“I think we’ll just discuss and get on. All three of us – I guess without sounding like an idiot, or excuse my language, a wanker – we’re all very good and we’re pushing each other to a very high level. We want to be that guy.
“I think it’s always going to get tight at different points. We just had an unfortunate situation the last couple events. I mean, after Toronto, we were just fine. I’m sure it will be the same moving forward.”
While McLaughlin said all is well with Power, he admitted that he and Newgarden have grown apart for a variety of reasons.
“There are a lot of stories in the media, just tweets, just because we’re not doing Bus Bros anymore doesn’t mean we hate each other,” McLaughlin explained.
“Our lives have gone one way. That is just how it is. It has got busy in my life too. My wife is pregnant. We’re expecting. I haven’t got enough time to be a silly bugger all the time.”
Josef Newgarden has been under the microscope since the start of the season over the cheating scandal.
He wound back his public presence in a bid to refocus himself and even went as far as unfollowing everyone on Instagram.
Newgarden said it was “natural” that people would want to tear his relationship with McLaughlin apart.
“I think a lot of people have wanted to pick us apart for multiple reasons this year. The good thing is that’s all external. It’s not an internal thing,” said Newgarden.
“If you sit down in our environment, it’s a really great environment, which is nice. It always has been. Same thing with Will. We just have a good working environment.
“We work very closely, probably closer than any other team would be my guess.
“If you were in our engineering room, we all sit next to each other in a roundtable the entire weekend and we work together to figure out our race cars every single weekend.
“It’s a great environment. Yeah, I’ve got nothing but good things to say about our group.”
Newgarden said he would speak to Power after the Gateway race.
Power is the highest placed Team Penske driver in fourth on 377 points. McLaughlin is fifth with 370 points and Newgarden is eighth on 317. Alex Palou leads the series on 443 points for Chip Ganassi Racing.
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