McLaughlin on the “cusp of something cool” ahead of 2025 IndyCar campaign

Photo Credit: Penske Entertainment | James Black
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Scott Mclaughlin is setting his sights on the NTT INDYCAR championship ahead of the 2025 season. He is entering his fifth season with Team Penske after finishing the season third for the last two years. McLaughlin is hoping to make the step up and take the championship in 2025.

The competition inside Penske

Scott McLaughlin is alongside two IndyCar champions and IndyCar 500 winners at Penske with Will Power and Josef Newgarden. At the IndyCar content day attended by Pit Debrief and other media outlets, McLaughlin noted how having such talented drivers alongside him pushed him to compete at a higher level.

“It’s certainly brought out the best in me. They’re the best teammates I’ve ever had in that regard.”

The Penske drivers often have each other as some of their biggest competition. The New Zealander recognised this and admitted that they push each other with their competitiveness.

“You’d be surprised how good we work. For how competitive it is behind closed doors like in the truck and stuff. We’re very open books and everyone sees everything. I think that’s why we see ourselves pushing each other even harder.”

The missing piece

In 2024, Scott McLaughlin took a step closer to the IndyCar title when he took his first oval win at Iowa. A hurdle that the Kiwi has previously struggled to clear gives him new confidence that he has all the tools to win the title.

By the end of the season, McLaughlin had two oval wins under his belt and a renewed confidence alongside it.

He echoed his feelings going into the 2024 championship.

“I certainly feel like I’m in the same boat. It’s just a matter of circumstances and me putting myself in different positions, and hopefully, sometimes you’ve just got to have a little bit of lady luck, as well. It’s just got to go your way.”

To make the step up next season McLaughlin recognised he needed to eliminate mistakes and bad results and noted a few races where he lost out on important points.

“But you’ve got to eliminate those big bad results, and we had a few of them last year which really hurt.

“I’d probably say three. Detroit, where I crashed out by myself, and then Laguna and Toronto [collisions with teammate Power]. Regardless, Toronto, whatever, like I still crashed out and it cost us a lot of points. Where Palou and Dixon were just from the back to the front and just cruised.”

Will 2025 be the year he takes the championship?

Despite his light-hearted attitude around the media side of IndyCar, Scott McLaughlin emphasised that he feels he is ‘on the cusp of something really cool’ heading into 2025.

However, he is realistic and acknowledges that with two incredibly talented drivers in his team, they are his largest competition for the title.

“I think we certainly feel like we’re on the cusp of something really cool, but at the same time what I talked to Bruce about. I’ve got two amazing race drivers as teammates with exactly the same opportunities. So it’s about me trying to find the most out of myself as much as anything.”

McLaughlin ended the season ahead of his Penske teammates for the second time and this will play a huge role in the 2025 campaign. Regarding his teammates, he said, “For me, I always want to beat my teammates because you have all the equal machinery. That’s just a common ground for any race driver.”

Consistency is key

IndyCar is an incredibly competitive championship, but wins aren’t everything when it comes to taking the title. In 2024, Alex Palou only won twice, and yet he went on to win the championship largely due to his consistency. The 31-year-old made it clear that his goal is to be consistent in 2025.

McLaughlin echoed that there is no one path to the Indycar championship but there are aspects which help.

“I think you’ve just got to do it your own way.

“As much as you can plan and think about what you can do and what you can’t, we all know the right path is just consistent results with a few wins along the way. I think you need to win a couple of wins. I think you need to win a couple of times for sure.

“But consistency is key, and we all know that.”