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The New Zealander had never qualified any higher than 14th for IndyCar’s biggest race but can now boast the fastest pole run in its 108-year history, an average speed of 234.220mph (376.941km/h).
He did so in the #3 Chevrolet entered by Team Penske, which he joined in 2017 when it competed in Supercars in partnership with Dick Johnson Racing.
In 2019, he repeated the feat with a 2:03.3783s in the Top 10 Shootout in a Gen2 S550 Mustang, although that time no longer stands in the record books due to an illegal engine.
Today, McLaughlin was forced into a position where he needed to at least come close to rewriting the record books again in order to take pole position for the Indy 500, and that is exactly what he did.
While a four-lap run around The Brickyard is different to one shot at 6.213km of winding mountain road, there were also similarities.
“It’s a completely different kettle of fish,” declared the 2019 Bathurst 1000 winner.
“Bathurst is one lap; this is basically four, and four good ones.
“I said to myself, it felt like a shootout at Bathurst, and I said that I’ve done this many times before; It’s just a matter of nailing it again.
“I felt like those two runs that I had today were some of the best laps I’ve ever driven.”
In both of those aforementioned shootouts, McLaughlin was the last driver out, as he was at Indianapolis.
“I said to myself before I went out, ‘I’m the last one to qualify; how cool is that?’” he recalled. “I just went out and enjoyed it.”
McLaughlin’s effort edges that of Alex Palou’s 234.217mph in the Fast Six in 2023, which itself broke a record set by another Kiwi in Scott Dixon when he wheeled his own Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to a 234.046mph to grab pole position in 2022.
Asked what was going through his head on his way back into pit lane, the Penske driver recounted, “You just want to get out of the car as fast as you can.
“You go back into the procedures and making sure it’s all right, but at the same time you are looking around, and it’s the first time you sort of enjoy and soak in the crowd.
“I felt like we had a hell of a crowd here today, around the banks and even at [Turn] 4 and down the front straight.
“It was incredible, so I just soaked it in as much as you can. You never know when this moment will ever happen again, especially at this place. As the boys said, it’s a pretty weird joint.
“But then when you get out of the car, you celebrate, and we’ll enjoy this, but it’s hard work next week to make sure we win the big one.”
Practice 8 is next up on Monday afternoon ET/Tuesday morning AEST.
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