ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The last time Scott McLaughlin won a pole, it was Sept. 27, 2020, at The Bend Motorsports Park in Adelaide, Australia.
It was the 76th Australia Supercars pole of McLaughlin’s career.
Saturday, on a hot and sunny day in St. Petersburg, Fla., McLaughlin scored the first pole of his NTT IndyCar Series career. He lapped the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street course in just 59.4821 seconds in the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet.
There were high hopes for McLaughlin during his IndyCar rookie season at Team Penske in 2021, but the driver from New Zealand made the Fast Six only once. That was at the GMR Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course last May. He started fifth.
Saturday on the streets of St. Petersburg, McLaughlin denied nine-time St. Petersburg pole winner Will Power to claim the pole.
McLaughlin hit the track on used Firestone Reds and was able to win the pole with a blistering lap.
“It’s amazing – I don’t know what other words,” McLaughlin said. “I’m pretty speechless. It’s something that you know you can do.
“In Australia we had a lot of success with poles and wins and all that sort of stuff and you know you can do it, but you have a hard year like 2021 where it just didn’t click and there were a few things where you just didn’t put it together, but you know the speed is there. It’s all about taking pressure off yourself and just focusing on what you need to do, and that’s what we did today.”
McLaughlin credited his new engineer at Team Penske, Ben Bretzman. He is the same man who helped chart the course for Simon Pagenaud’s 2016 NTT IndyCar Series championship and his victory in the 2019 Indianapolis 500.
“I’m really working well with my new engineer, Ben Bretzman, who’s been fantastic for me,” McLaughlin said. “Jonathan Diuguid, who I used to work with, he basically helped me get to this moment. He was the one engineer I worked with to this point, and Ben has picked me up and just polished me off a little bit there.
“It’s one. Hopefully I’d like to have more, but at the end of the day, it’s qualifying, and tomorrow is the big day, so we’ll see what we’ve got.”
McLaughlin has yet to win an NTT IndyCar Series race. He will attempt to complete that goal by leading the field to the green flag when Sunday’s race begins at Noon EST on NBC.
Power is attempting to catch Mario Andretti on the all-time pole list. Andretti has 67 and Power has 63.
“I was very happy up until the last run,” Power said. “I was like P1, P1, P1, P2. But it was good. Like honestly, I feel like I got the most out of the session. I guess there’s not much I could have done. What I could have done in the last one was to fuel for just one lap and may have had a shot. But yeah, like I said, starting way ahead of last year at this track.”
“Team Penske had a bad year last year, so certainly came into this season determined but with a lot of work behind that, a lot of work and understanding. When you have a struggle, a year of struggle, you always come back and have a pretty close look at what you were missing.
“That’s kind of what we turned up with here. Missed out on qualifying last year, so I was very determined to make it to the Fast Six was the first thing. Well, make it to the Fast 12, honestly, and then the Six. So, we got there, just one short of pole, man.
“Poles keep eluding me down to this last like five that I need. After that I don’t care about pole.”
When asked if now that McLaughlin has finally scored that first pole, if more poles are on the way, Power joked, “No, I think it’s a one-off thing. He falls off a cliff now.”
McLaughlin looked over at Power and said, “Bring it on.”
“No, it’s not surprising,” Power continued. “You saw it in practice last year. He just had a few issues in qualifying getting through the rounds a couple times. But the potential was there.
“He’s been at a very high level in a very competitive series for quite a few years, so he knows the game. He knows the game well. He knows the car now. You really expect him to be there every time.”
Last year, Team Penske’s four car effort produced just one driver in the top five in the standings. That was second place Josef Newgarden.
This year, Team Penske is a three-car team as Pagenaud departed the team to join Meyer Shank Racing. McLaughlin believes it is important for all three drivers on the team to get off to a fast start in 2022.
“You guys asked me if I needed to step up for these two, and I feel like I’ve really worked hard over the off-season to make sure I was ready to go,” McLaughlin said. “It is important, and I’m right there, and it’s important that I push these guys because it’s only going to make them better and it’s only going to make me better, as well, as a team.
“I’m pumped to be able to put it together. As Will said, the team struggled to get through some of the rounds last year, but I feel good.”