“Not bad for a dumbass!”
After a bit of pointed criticism from Will Power after Saturday night’s practice incident, Scott McLaughlin turned the fastest two-lap qualifying average to claim pole for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
The #3 Team Penske Chevrolet turned two laps of 182.508 and 183.395mph to average 182.951mph (294.431km/h) around the 1.25-mile (2.01km) oval just outside of St. Louis. Josef Newgarden qualified second fastest with an average speed of 182.951mph (293.528km/h) but will start on pole after McLaughlin’s engine change penalty.
NTT IndyCar Series competitors are allowed to change to a fifth engine for the season if they completed their mileage program with their first four engines. Because McLaughlin did not complete 10,000 miles (16,093km) with his first four engines, the team’s engine change was unapproved and McLaughlin will tentatively start 10th on the 28-car grid.
“I’m pretty happy with that,” McLaughlin said. “The car was obviously really good and I think straight off the truck the car’s felt really nice and we’ve basically rolled into the qualifying there with a very similar setup to what we rolled out with, and yeah, probably the best feeling I’ve felt.”
That feeling wasn’t there in Saturday’s evening practice session.
McLaughlin spun on his final out lap near the end of the hour-long session and was sitting with his car half on the grass and half on the lower groove of the track. Power went high on the track to avoid McLaughlin’s stationary car and went into the tyre debris on track, hitting the outside wall. After Marcus Ericsson had nowhere to go and hit the #12 car, Power said in his post-crash interview that ‘there was some dumbass’ spun in the grass, perhaps not knowing that was McLaughlin.
“Straight away I went and saw him, I didn’t see the interview until later on that night,” McLaughlin said. “But as we know, Will wears his heart on his sleeve and that’s why many people love him but yeah, I’m going to feed into it like I feed into everything else as well. It’s just a bit of fun.”
Newgarden will start on pole in his effort to sweep all of the oval races in an IndyCar season for the first time ever. The Tennessee native has three previous wins at Gateway and a win Sunday afternoon would be Newgarden’s eighth win in the last 10 oval races.
The race broadcast will go live at 14:30 local time/05:30 AEST.
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