McLaughlin: "I didn't want to call myself an IndyCar driver until I won ...

Scott McLaughlin’s career-first oval win in the opening race at Iowa has made him consider himself an IndyCar driver, having won on each of the three course types.

The Kiwi’s sixth IndyCar win was his first on an oval, following successes on a street course (St. Petersburg) and road courses (Mid-Ohio, Portland and Barber x2).

“That’s a big deal today,” the New Zealand-born Team Penske driver said after the race. “I’ve been working for that for a couple of years. It takes a lot of hard work.

“I didn’t want to call myself an IndyCar driver until I won on an oval, so I’m going to call myself an IndyCar driver now.”

Colton Herta had earlier qualified on the pole ahead of McLaughlin and led the first 86 laps before the Penske #3 edged past him during the race’s second caution when Graham Rahal slowed due to a cracked wheel.

The field came to pit road together, and the Kiwi narrowly pipped Herta on the exit to hit the front.

From here, he led the final 164 laps, holding off Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward through a series of late-race restarts for his maiden oval victory.

“I just checked off one of my biggest goals I had this year,” he said in the post-race press conference. “Super proud. At the end of the day, I did the job from my perspective, but it was a team win. They put me out in front and got me the lead, and I was able to show how good the car was controlling the pace at the front.

“Before qualifying today, I had some really good confidence that I could go and post some really good laps,” he added. “In the race, I was biding my time and saving my fuel when we needed, and thankfully, I got out in front of Herta.

“I felt like an open-wheel driver [before the win], but an IndyCar driver is someone that can win on all three race tracks.

“Thankfully, I’m very proud to say I’ve won on an oval now, as well as a road and a street course. Proud moment for me, it’s taken a lot of hard work.

“I’ve worked really hard behind the scenes to be better, whether it’s here or on the old surface as well. Texas or any of the other ovals as well, I feel like we’ve been really strong, but we just haven’t finished it off. We were able to do that today.”

Scott Dixon bounced back from a hybrid failure at Mid-Ohio to finish fourth, narrowly missing out on the final podium place to Penske’s Josef Newgarden.

Kiwi Marcus Armstrong also enjoyed a strong outing, finishing tenth in just his second-ever oval start. His only previous experience came in the 2024 Indy 500, where electrical issues ended his race on Lap 6.

Championship leader Alex Palou ran within the lead group early but dropped to 19th with gear shift issues mid-race. The reigning champion then crashed on Lap 176 to be classified 23rd.

McLaughlin, Dixon, and O’Ward’s strong results reduced Palou’s championship lead to just 37 points over the McLaren driver. Dixon is now 46 points in arrears in fourth, one place and 13 points ahead of his compatriot.

McLaughlin’s strong qualifying pace earned him pole position for Monday’s race, and Palou started on the front row alongside him.

Dixon lines up third, next to Herta, while Armstrong starts 26th after scraping the wall on his second qualifying lap.

“We’ll move forward and know we’ve got a good car tomorrow,” said McLaughlin. “I think we’ll be even better when the sun’s up, so hopefully, we can carry it on and win again.”

Coverage of Race 2 begins at 4.00 am on Monday NZST and will be shown live on Sky Sport.

Header Image: Penske Entertainment: Travis Hinkle

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