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In his Indianapolis 500 debut, Scott McLaughlin sped in the pit lane. In his second start, he crashed out with 50 laps to go. Last year, he rear-ended a rival in the dying laps of the race.
Now the New Zealander is hoping to learn from those mistakes and capitalise on his best chance yet to win the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
McLaughlin will start Monday’s (AEST) race from pole position after he set the fastest four-lap average speed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway ever.
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It’s the best place to be. From the outset, he’ll be able to dictate his own race instead of trying to fight his way forward like he’s had to do in years past.
Speaking on SiriusXM IndyCar Nation, McLaughlin told 2016 Indianapolis 500 pole position winner James Hinchcliffe he is eager to put his past failures behind him.
“I just want a solid race. I want a race where I don’t make a mistake,” said McLaughlin.
“Every time I’ve come here, I’ve made a mistake at some point. I’ve sped in the pits (in ’21), I spun Simon Pagenaud in ’23, I crashed in ’22 — I’ve made a mistake at some point that’s affected me. That’s not just across the month, that’s in the race.
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“I know it’s because I haven’t focused entirely on my execution and my processes. I’ve got a really deep understanding of that right now and I’m so locked in and so focused on what I need to do, I’m really confident that I can have a strong race that I can be there or thereabouts.
“I feel like I understand. I bet my bottom dollar I’m not leading lap one because that’s just how the draft works and I’m very content with that, but I just need to get into a rhythm, keep myself in position, save fuel when I need to, and hopefully at the end of it we’re there or thereabouts.
“If it’s a win, it’s a win. If it’s a top five, top 10, whatever, all I can do is control my process and my execution and hopefully be there in the end.”
Hinchcliffe recounted the 2022 edition when Chip Ganassi Racing cars occupied four of the top six starting positions and worked together in the early going.
Ganassi driver Marcus Ericsson went on to win that race, holding off McLaren’s Pato O’Ward for the win.
McLaughlin said there has been no talk of working with his Team Penske stablemates Will Power and Josef Newgarden to control the race early on.
“I think we’re all a bit weirded out with the whole thing,” said McLaughlin.
“We don’t really know what to do because we haven’t been up there like that, as close with each other to start. But there’s no discussion at the moment. I don’t know if the engineers have spoken about it or not.
“Ultimately, I think we’re just very focused on just getting away at the start, get a clean start going, and making sure we keep ourselves in the top positions.”
If McLaughlin does win Monday’s race, he’ll be the first driver to have won the Indianapolis 500 and the Bathurst 1000.
The green flag will drop at 2.45am AEST with Stan Sport carrying live, ad-free, and exclusive coverage from 1am AEST.
Indianapolis 500 schedule (AEST)
1am – Stan Sport live broadcast starts
1.47am – Driver introductions
2.24am – USA national anthem
2.36am – Back Home Again In Indiana
2.38am – Command to start engines
2.45am – Green flag for 108th running of Indianapolis 500
