Scott McLaughlin wins his first career IndyCar race at St. Petersburg

On a bright and sunny day on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, the NTT IndyCar Series kicked off the 2022 season.

Familiar names like Romain Grosjean, Takuma Sato, and Simon Pagenaud were back with new rides, while six rookies began their IndyCar careers, including Christian Lundgaard, Devlin DeFrancesco, and Kyle Kirkwood.

Last week, Team Penske owner Roger Penske’s driver, Austin Cindric, won the Daytona 500 and was looking to continue the team’s hot start in 2022.

Two of his drivers, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power, were on the front row for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Will Power got loose on the opening lap just as the green flag waved, allowing Colton Herta to take second and Rinus VeeKay third. Will Power dove down on Romain Grosjean to settle for fourth.

Helio Castroneves and Jack Harvey were the first to pit under green flag conditions ten laps into the race. Meanwhile, while the top three cars were in single file, Marcus Ericsson took fourth place away from Rinus VeeKay with a nice inside pass on lap 19. VeeKay would lose two more positions after that before pitting on lap 20.

While most cars had already pitted McLaughlin, Colton Herta, Alex Palou, Will Power, Romain Grosjean, and Graham Rahal had not pitted. Instead, they were going with a two-stop strategy.

On lap 25, rookie David Malukas made contact with the turn three wall that brought out the first and only caution of the race.

During pit stops, Graham Rahal was sandwiched in-between Marcus Ericsson and Romain Grojean exiting pit road. Alexander Rossi was the new leader, while Scott McLaughlin was sitting in the twelfth position.

Shortly after the restart on lap 33, Rossi pitted on lap 26 as Scott Dixon took over the lead. Dixon led eleven laps before going to pit road, handing the lead over to Rinus VeeKay. The lead would change several more times as drivers went to pit road for their final stops of the day.

After Scott Dixon made his last stop on lap 79, Scott McLaughlin resumed the lead with the defending champion Alex Palou right behind him with twenty laps to go. Both cars were dealing with traffic as the laps were winding down. Alex Palou’s teammate Jimmie Johnson tried to stay on the lead lap and held off McLaughlin while Palou closed in on him.

Scott McLaughlin got around Johnson, and so did Palou. That was only the beginning for McLaughlin, as he came upon more traffic, and this time, drivers moved out of the way.

On the final lap, McLaughlin dealt with Devlin DeFrancesco, who was trying to stay on the lead lap, while Alex Palou was looking for a way to pass.

Palou took a look on the outside on the last turn, but McLaughlin held on to win his first career IndyCar race by .5095 seconds over Alex Palou.

“Thank you, Roger Penske, everyone,” said Scott McLaughlin. “Yeah, DEX Imaging jumping on board, trusting me, and then Roger Penske and Tim Cindric giving me the opportunity to come here. I miss my mom and dad dearly and my family. Wish you guys were here. What a day.”

When asked about those finals laps battling Palou, McLaughlin said, “Oh, man, it was crazy,” McLaughlin said of Palou’s pressure. Really struggled those last couple laps just to keep my head and then save the fuel and all that sort of stuff.”

McLaughlin added, “But we did it. Chevy gave us the fuel mileage. Drivability this weekend has been a change, and to win at DEX Imaging’s home race is unreal. Oh, my God, I’m just – love you Australia, New Zealand, miss you guys. Thinking of everyone in the Queensland floods at the moment.”

On chasing McLaughlin, the second-place finisher, Alex Palou, said, “It was close. It was really, really close, but I don’t think we had the pace he had today. Like he was on rails, and he knew where to go fast and where to obviously save some fuel at the end. I was just there trying to make some pressure, so hopefully, he made a mistake or anything, but no, he was all good.”

Palou added, “Congrats to him. I’m super happy that he got his first win. Yeah, I’m happier that we got our first podium of the year.”

The rest of the top ten finishers were Will Power third, Colton Herta fourth, Romain Grosjean fifth, Rinus VeeKay sixth, Graham Rahal seventh, Scott Dixon eighth, Marcus Erisson ninth, and Takuma Sato tenth.

The next NTT IndyCar Series race is on Sunday, March 20^th, from Texas Motor Speedway for the XPEL 375 at 12:30 pm on NBC.

Finishing Order: