In the second part of RaceFans’ countdown of the top ten IndyCar drivers for the 2022 season, we reveal drivers ranked from fifth all the way to the number one driver of the year.
5 – Scott McLaughlin – Penske
Meet IndyCar’s newest elite driver.
Last year, Scott McLaughlin won Rookie of the Year honours over Romain Grosjean solely because Grosjean voluntarily stood down from three races. Save for some flashes of strength at ovals, McLaughlin looked very ordinary in a high powered single seater, far away from his sensational form in the Australian Supercars Championship that he’d left behind after a hat trick of consecutive titles and a Bathurst 1000 victory.
However, during the off-season, McLaughlin transformed into a top-tier IndyCar driver – albeit with the help of the cache of resources he has at Penske. He converted his maiden pole into a sensational victory at the season-opener in St Petersburg, thwarting reigning champion Palou. Then he was one corner away from doubling up at Texas Motor Speedway.
He defeated Palou again at Mid-Ohio to bust a slump, and at the end of the year, he never finished worse than sixth in the final six races – including four podiums, another pole in Nashville, and a dominant pole-to-win victory in Portland.
All this from a driver whose entire junior formula career before IndyCar was but a single season of regional-level Formula Ford racing. The only thing that kept him from finishing higher than fifth in the points was a late spring slump that included spins at the Indy GP and Detroit, and a crash out of the Indy 500. But the proof of concept is real, and ‘Scotty Mac’ will be expected to fight and tumble his way to many more victories next season and beyond.
4 – Pato O’Ward – McLaren SP
When Pato O’Ward has the car under him, there are few, if any, more electric young drivers on the IndyCar grid than the 23-year-old ace of the McLaren SP IndyCar team, with his lightning-quick ninja reflexes and blistering speed.
It was a close seventh for O’Ward at the end of the season, but not because he had fallen off from his third-place championship finish in 2021. If anything, he was bitterly unlucky not to have matched or surpassed that high mark. He drove sensationally to get by Rinus VeeKay and snatch victory at Barber Motorsports Park, and the misfortune of Josef Newgarden allowed him to capture his second win in the Iowa 300 after finishing second the day before.
O’Ward said he didn’t have the horsepower…
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