All of the hype surrounding the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season has been the depth of talent. With 26 full-time cars on the grid, the season-opening race at St Petersburg definitely delivered. With former champions, race winners, and a crop of elite rookie talent, Scott McLaughlin fought and earned his first career victory.
Yesterday McLaughlin out dueled his teammate and qualifying legend Will Power for pole position. Today, he followed that up by fending off a fierce attack from reigning series champion Alex Palou in the closing laps of the race. The margin of victory for McLaughlin was just 0.509 seconds. The Team Penske driver put the No. 3 Chevrolet back in victory lane for the first time since Helio Castroneves won the 2017 race at Iowa.
Palou made a hard charge late in the race, but had to settle for a runner-up finish after starting in 10th position. He was in the middle of the Penske sandwich as Power joined them on the podium. This is the 223rd career IndyCar win for Roger Penske’s team.
McLaughlin led 49 of the 100 laps, and was out of breath when he got out of his car. “Oh my God! Thank you to Roger Penske,” he said. “What a day. I’m out of breath. We did it. I can’t believe it.”
Scott’s new race engineer Ben Bretzman was confident in his driver’s ability. “He’s the real deal. Like we figured out last year, you saw it. There’s a reason he won all those races down in Australia. He’s really freaking good. I’m super proud of the guy, and our whole team to get him this far in such a short period of time. What impresses me the most he did it with no mistakes. What a debut!”
Palou kept fans glued to the television as the two battled for the win in the closing laps. “He did an amazing job,” Palou said of McLaughlin. “I’m super happy he got his first win. If we look at the result we got today and how we started the weekend, I’m really happy. I don’t think we had the pace Scott had, so if this is one of our worst…
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