SCOTT McLaughlin reflects on his Indianapolis 500 nightmare last year with a mix of hurt and laughter.<\/p>\n
The Kiwi infamously crashed out on the pace lap, having been due to start from 10th.<\/p>\n
It was the icing on the cake of a bitter period for Team Penske in which it became engulfed in an IndyCar technical breach scandal that resulted in high-profile sackings.<\/p>\n
Speaking on IndyCar\u2019s The Offseason program, McLaughlin addressed all sorts of matters including that moment at the Brickyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really tough in the moment and probably for months after,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look back on it now, like I still haven\u2019t watched the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to watch the race because I just know that I\u2019m a big part of the start and it sucks.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the same time, I laugh about it. It was probably the stupidest thing I\u2019ve done, or the silliest moment that\u2019s ever happened to me, but ultimately everyone makes a mistake and honestly that was just something that got from under me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as my family, my team and everyone is behind me, there\u2019s no point looking backwards, just keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLaughlin also touched on his leap of faith to quit Supercars at the end of 2020 in order to pursue IndyCar.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely halfway through the first year I was like, \u2018what the hell am I doing?\u2019 Like I could have just sat there (in Australia) and won another championship or have been close to it or doing what I knew,\u201d he confessed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut for me, once I had won a championship and Bathurst, I\u2019m the type of guy that once I\u2019ve done something, I want to try what\u2019s next on the agenda.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always been who I am and I think that comes from my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other topics in the chat included McLaughlin\u2019s love of fatherhood and the United States, where he is now a citizen (dual status with his native New Zealand).<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see myself leaving this country even after my racing career has finished,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The 2026 IndyCar Series opens in early March on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCOTT McLaughlin reflects on his Indianapolis 500 nightmare last year with a mix of hurt and laughter. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-397573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}