Scott McLaughlin. Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo

By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio

Roger Penske hires drivers for his INDYCAR team with the unwritten understanding that victory in the Indianapolis 500 is at the very top of the to-do list. Actually, that expectation might be included in the fine print of every Team Penske contract.

Scott McLaughlin. Photo by Chris Owens

Josef Newgarden checked that box last May, when he delivered Penske his record-extending 19^th victory in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” Teammate Will Power won the 2018 Indy 500, thereby avoiding deportation to his native Australia.

Rick Mears set the standard via his record-tying four Indy 500 victories, all with Team Penske. Popular Brazilian Helio Castroneves won the first three of his four Indy 500s with Penske as the fence-climbing “Spiderman.” The list of open-wheel royalty to have prevailed on IMS’ 2.5-mile oval for “The Captain” began with Mark Donohue in 1972 and includes Al Unser and Al Unser Jr., Bobby Unser, Danny Sullivan, Emerson Fittipaldi, Gil de Ferran, Sam Hornish Jr., Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud.

Scott McLaughlin. Photo by Skibinski | IMS Photo

That leaves native New Zealander Scott McLaughlin as next-man-up Sunday, once the green flag triggers the flying start to the race’s 108^th edition. A five-time NTT IndyCar Series race-winner, McLaughlin will start on-pole in his bid to bag the organization’s 20^th Indy 500 victory. McLaughlin earned P1 with a record-setting four-lap/10-mile qualifying run of 234.220 mph last Sunday in the No. 3 Pennzoil “Yellow Submarine” Team Penske Chevrolet, pacing the organization’s second lockout of the traditional three-car front row.

Power will start second and Newgarden third in the field of 33…with no promise of which Penske ace will reach Turn 1 first on the opening lap of 200.

“I never started on the pole, mate,” McLaughlin said during a pre-event Front Row presser with his teammates. “I mean, the drafts and everything these days, it’s a whole lot different to how it used to be in some ways, from watching races back. I think you control what you can control. I just race my race and hopefully the cards fall my way.”

Will Power. Photo by Chris Owens

Power _ INDYCAR’s all-time pole-winner with 70 _ said the middle of Row 1 at IMS is just fine. “You get the double-draft,” Power joked. “I’ll probably be leading out of Turn 1. We’ll see.”

Newgarden could not recall starting the Indy 500 from P3. “I’m going to find out if it’s ‘tricky’ or not,” Newgarden said in response to a media inquiry. “I hope it’s not ‘tricky.’^”

The 108^th Indy 500 is Round 5 of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series schedule. Live coverage will start at 11 a.m. (EDT) on NBC, with a Spanish-language version available on Universo, Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network. SiriusXM also will carry live coverage on XM Channel 218 and the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA.

McLaughlin clearly is enjoying the spotlight generated by his seventh career INDYCAR pole, and first in the world’s biggest auto race.

“Super-excited! I guess it has been a pretty whirlwind week,” said McLaughlin, a three-time Australian V-8 Supercars champion who Penske brought to INDYCAR fulltime in 2021. “Being fastest here for qualifying, obviously it’s the first box you want to tick, but ultimately you want to win on Sunday.

Scott McLaughlin. Photo by James Black | IMS Photo

“Just really proud to represent Pennzoil, and obviously it’s 40 years since Rick won in this race car. It would mean a lot to the team and myself to do that, obviously. It would be a life-changing experience. But ultimately we need to go through all the processes, all the execution to get to that point as 32 other amazing race car drivers out there are going to be chasing us down and working us very hard. Yeah, no doubt about that.”

McLaughlin insisted he does not feel extra pressure to win now, capping what has been a “Month of May” dominated by Team Penske. McLaughlin tuned-up by recording 93 laps _ nearly half-a-race _ during Friday’s two-hour Carb Day practice without issue.

Scott McLaughlin. Photo by Chris Jones |
IMS Photo

“I’m just very focused on the job at hand,” said McLaughlin, a 30-year-old native of Christchurch, New Zealand. “I think we’ve proved that you can get a sore neck looking back. We’ll keep working forward. I’m really proud of the execution all month, but at the end of the day, the main time to execute is Sunday and we’ll try and do that.”

McLaughlin said the No. 3 car he wheeled Friday felt balanced similarly to how it ended Monday’s post-qualifying practice. “We haven’t really played around too much mechanically with the car,” McLaughlin said. “It felt good out-of-the-box, and just sort of building my confidence with it. We tried a few different downforce levels there just to get an idea.

“Looks like cooler temps for Sunday, as well as Monday if that gets pushed back (by rain). Hopefully not. But ultimately you’re just sort of going through the motions (on Carb Day), attacking the pit speed line. I actually sped, which was a good thing to get that out of the way now. A few other things like just pit stop practice and whatnot. I was just ticking things off the list.

“Yeah, felt really good. Didn’t put a big number up, but I think we’re OK. Just (want to) keep my emotions in-check, just enjoy the moment and see what happens.”

Scott McLaughlin, Will Power and Josef Newgarden . Photo by Chris Jones | IMS Photo

Power politely reminded his teammates that track conditions at IMS are subject to the whims of sun and wind and cloud-cover…and in the worst-case, rain. “It’s a funny place. Pretty finicky,” said Power, 43, and driver of the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet. “The balance could go out. You have a perfect car Monday, then it’s a little bit out of balance. I’ve been here where you’re just throwing everything out at it. Just hate waiting for the race. This is the worst time, these few days. You just want to get into it.”

Newgarden, meanwhile, is aiming to become the first repeat Indy 500 winner since Castroneves in 2001-02 with Penske while dealing with the notion that this race can be won from any row, any starting spot.

“I believe it’s true nowadays,” said Newgarden, 33, driver of the No. 2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske Chevrolet. “I’m not an expert around here but I don’t think you can ever get ahead of yourself. If you look at the current formula, you can win from anywhere. Anything can happen in this race. Can go great for the first 150 laps, then it turns. Vice-versa. You can also have a terrible day until Lap 150 and all of a sudden it turns. It’s true that when you start up-front, I think the opportunity to control the race is a little bit better, it’s higher.

“Having said that, as well, you just don’t want to hang your hat on that. I think that’s getting ahead of yourself. I think you have to be prepared for any circumstance, any opportunity. It’s great to have fast cars, be in position, but you have to be ready for that to change at any moment.”

Along those lines Pagenaud has emerged as McLaughlin’s behind-the-scenes mentor on the American art of oval-track racing between concrete walls/SAFER Barriers at 230-plus mph.

“He’s a very keen observer of many things, a note-taker, and we’ve been exchanging notes all week,” McLaughlin said of Pagenaud. “I asked him to do this like February, January or February, and we’ve been analyzing a lot of things since.”

Frenchman Pagenaud, 40, has not competed in INDYCAR since crashing his No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda during practice at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, on July 1. The car’s brakes failed at-speed, sending him into a series of frightening rollovers at 180 mph. Pagenaud walked away from the wreckage unaided but began experiencing significant concussion-like symptoms. He subsequently was ruled out from driving by INDYCAR’s medical team. Although he reportedly has made significant strides in a bid to return to racing, the healing process continues 10 months after the crash.

“He’s always been a Team Penske member,” McLaughlin said. “He’s won the 500 for us (in 2019) and at the end of the day, we all just want him to be OK. So, this is for me an opportunity for me to work with him but also an opportunity for me to help maybe bring him back to the race and get his name back involved. Whether that’s not driving a race car, at least he’s involved, and he gets that feeling of being at the 500 again.

“I’m sure it’s so hard for him right now. It’s his first 500 he’s missed in a long time. He’s a 500 winner, and he’s at a point in his career where he could easily keep going for many, many years.”

Starting lineup for the 108th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge NTT IndyCar Series event on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with rank, car number in parentheses, driver, engine, time and speed in parentheses:

1.(3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 02:33.7017 (234.220 mph)
2. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 02:33.9007 (233.917)
3. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 02:33.9726 (233.808)
4. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 02:34.4469 (233.090)
5. (17) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 02:34.6083 (232.848)
6. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 02:34.7110 (232.692)
7. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 02:34.7657 (232.610)
8. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 02:34.7829 (232.584)
9. (60) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 02:34.9686 (232.305)
10. (75) Takuma Sato, Honda, 02:35.0578 (232.171)
11. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 02:35.8490 (230.993)
12. (23) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Chevrolet, 02:36.1367 (230.567)
13. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 02:34.9616 (232.316)
14. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 02:34.9682 (232.306)
15. (6) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 02:35.0184 (232.230)
16. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 02:35.0504 (232.183)
17. (20) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 02:35.1608 (232.017)
18. (4) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 02:35.2069 (231.948)
19. (98) Marco Andretti, Honda, 02:35.2458 (231.890)
20. (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 02:35.2587 (231.871)
21. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 02:35.2723 (231.851)
22. (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 02:35.2750 (231.847)
23. (41) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 02:35.2888 (231.826)
24. (33) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 02:35.3852 (231.682)
25. (66) Tom Blomqvist, Honda, 02:35.4554 (231.578)
26. (77) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 02:35.4982 (231.514)
27. (8) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 02:35.5034 (231.506)
28. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 02:35.5308 (231.465)
29. (24) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 02:35.6803 (231.243)
30. (30) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 02:35.7768 (231.100)
31. (51) Katherine Legge, Honda, 02:36.4590 (230.092)
32. (28) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 02:36.5037 (230.027)
33. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 02:36.5396 (229.974)