{"id":346416,"date":"2023-11-14T03:23:38","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T04:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=346416"},"modified":"2023-11-14T08:03:27","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T08:03:27","slug":"the-moment-mclaughlin-knew-hed-made-it-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=346416","title":{"rendered":"The moment McLaughlin knew he'd made it in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scott McLaughlin<\/a> hopes it won't take as long to win the Indianapolis 500<\/a> as it did to finally triumph in the Bathurst 1000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his eighth attempt, the Kiwi finally won at The Mountain<\/a> with French co-driver Alex Premat.<\/p>\n

A little more than a year on from that win, McLaughlin moved from Australia to the United States crossing codes from Supercars<\/a> to IndyCar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stan Sport is the only place to watch the 2024 IndyCar Series, featuring Will Power, Scott McLaughlin and Scott Dixon.<\/strong><\/em> All the action streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

No one before McLaughlin had ever made such a transition. It was especially bold considering he'd never driven a wings-and-slicks race car in his career.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Off the back of his third full season in the open-wheel series with front-runners Team Penske, McLaughlin feels right at home on and off the track.<\/p>\n

"When I first came here in 2020, I didn't know anyone," said the 30-year-old in a post-season interview with IndyCar.<\/p>\n

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"I'm sort of walking around and I didn't know anyone's name. It's kind of intimidating. It is intimidating, regardless of how you look at it \u2013 whether it affects you or not. It does affect you a little bit. Now I feel at home.<\/p>\n

"I said at the banquet, I feel like I'm an open-wheel driver more than a touring car driver. I genuinely feel that. That's pretty cool.<\/p>\n

"The respect from my peers and people that actually consider me now to be a threat, that's a good thing and confidence booster, not only for me, but people working on my car. It just bumps up the morale of the team."<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

McLaughlin's first full season in 2021 was a rollercoaster affair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In only his third race, he stood on the podium after nearly winning at Texas Motor Speedway \u2013 his first competitive oval experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a largely unsuccessful season on the whole, breaking the top five just once more after that stunning second place finish.<\/p>\n

Season two was something of a breakout for the Kiwi.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin wound up fourth in the standings in 2022, winning the season-opener at St Petersburg and claiming two more wins at Mid-Ohio and Portland.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin only scored one win in 2023 but was more consistent on the whole \u2013 finishing third in the standings.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin hopes 2024 will be his year when it all comes together.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

There's a particular focus on the crown jewel event, the Indianapolis 500.<\/p>\n

Two of his three starts have been blighted by incidents. He was the Rookie of the Year in '21 but crashed out in '22 before being caught in someone else's crash in '23.<\/p>\n

"I'm very proud with how we've built on ovals and where we're at, especially for qualifying," he explained.<\/p>\n

"The next step here is at Indy. This one, the last three years, has been very tough. It reminds me a lot of Bathurst when I grew up in the Supercars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"It took a bit to get used to that track and eventually we won. I would love to win my first oval here in the 500. That'd be pretty cool. That'd be pretty cool."<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

McLaughlin closed out the 2023 season at Laguna Seca with a second place finish behind compatriot Scott Dixon.<\/p>\n

That result was enough for him to leap-frog Pato O'Ward in the standings.<\/p>\n

"I said to the guys and girls on the team, I said before we got in the car (at the season finale), '2024 starts now'," said McLaughlin.<\/p>\n

"It's cliche, but I was really proud of the effort there from everyone. We were up and down, then changed front wings, got us on a different strategy, and really just not give up. We never did from lap one, getting hit, to coming back through.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"We went up and down like a yo-yo. I was super proud of that effort. I was super mad too at the start of the race, so I was throwing moves left, right, and centre. I was having fun doing that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"There was a little bit of, 'this is the last race of the year, who cares? Let's go!' I had nothing to lose, really. Ultimately, if we were in the position for the championship next year and we needed to do something like that, it was a nice little practice run if it ever did happen."<\/p>\n

The 2024 IndyCar Series gets underway on the streets of St Petersburg on March 11 with coverage live, ad-free, and exclusively on Stan Sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scott McLaughlin hopes it won't take as long to win the Indianapolis 500 as it did to finally triumph in the Bathurst 1000. In his […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":300960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=346416"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346420,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346416\/revisions\/346420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/300960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=346416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=346416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=346416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}