In what has been a stunning rookie IndyCar Series campaign for Scott McLaughlin, Detroit proved a major thorn in his side. The Team Penske driver offers a frank assessment of a weekend to forget in the latest edition of his exclusive Hired Gun column for Speedcafe.com.

Hi guys,

Well if you were watching that – you’d know it didn’t go to plan. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It was three brutal days.

It was horrible really.

And I’m so glad right now it’s over.

In a snapshot – here’s how we went.

Friday: posted a quick lap and then hit the wall and our day was done – which killed valuable track time we absolutely craved.

Saturday: qualified badly, raced our way through the field where we looked like we’d grab an unlikely top 10. Then hit the wall. Finished 19th.

Sunday: qualified badly again – filthy with myself, then cut a tyre in the race and we were chasing our tail for a 20th finish.

So the less said about all that the better.

It was character building – all up it was one of the toughest weekends of my career in ANY form of motorsport, and you can sometimes learn more from your roughest days out there.

So there’s plenty to go to work on before next week.

We have some good road courses coming up that I know we can improve our results on.

The positives – we were the leading rookie in both races and still lead that handsomely over Jimmie and Romain.

In the series championship – we’ve unfortunately dropped outside the top 10 to 12^th in the standings – so that’s a focus to work our way back in.

Road America next week can’t come quick enough.

It’s the most magnificent race track – I was lucky enough to test there just last week and it is already one of my favourites.

It’s right up there with Bathurst – which is a big wrap – but that’s how good the place is.

For Aussies and Kiwis back home reading this – please put this place on your bucket list. Hopefully this weekend you’ll see how great the place is.

So as I write this, I’m bummed – but that’ll clear in the next few days – and then we’ll be back at the track.

I already can’t wait to get back in the car.

What’s that saying – it won’t happen overnight – but we’ll stick at it!

Thanks everyone for the support. Take care,

Scotty.