Team Penske’s week of adversity and ultimate redemption with Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin

ROGER:

This is Roger Penske and you're listening to Pit Pass Indie, sponsored by Penske Truck Rental.

BRUCE:

IndyCar fans, it's time to start your engines. Welcome to Pit Pass Indy, a production of Evergreen Podcast. I'm your host, Bruce Martin, a journalist who regularly covers the NTT IndyCar Series. Our goal at Pit Pass Indy is to give racing fans and insiders view of the exciting world of the NTT IndyCar Series in a fast-paced podcast featuring interviews with the biggest names in the sport. I bring nearly 40 years of experience covering IndyCar and NASCAR, working for such media brands as NBCSports.com, SI.com, ESPN SportsTicker, Sports Illustrated, AutoWeek and SpeedSport. So let's drop the green flag on this episode of Pit Pass Indy. Welcome to this week's edition of Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental and Hy-Vee. As we continue our fourth season of giving IndyCar fans a behind the scenes look at the NTT IndyCar series and the drivers and teams that compete in the Indianapolis 500. We want to welcome back our friends from Hy-Vee who will be sharing the show with Penske Truck Rental this month and again in June in the big build-up to the Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend at Iowa Speedway July 12th through July 14th. This year's schedule includes a night race at Iowa Speedway on Saturday, July 13th with another full race scheduled for Sunday, July 14th. Four of the biggest names in entertainment will perform before and after each race, including Luke Combs, Eric Church, Kelsey Ballerini, and Post Malone. For Malone, it will be the first time the famed entertainer has performed in Central Iowa. It was Charles Dickens who wrote in The Tale of Two Cities, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. That quote perfectly describes the week for Team Penske as it experienced the depths of adversity, but was able to fight through that adversity and achieve redemption. The adversity was the stunning news on Wednesday, April 24th, when IndyCar officials disqualified Joseph Newgarden's win in the March 10th Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg for violation of push-to-pass regulations. He became the first IndyCar driver to be disqualified and lose his race win since Al Unser Jr. at Portland International Raceway on June 25, 1995. Unser's car failed CART's two-inch rule during post-race technical inspection, and he was informed of the disqualification about one hour after celebrating the win in Victory Lane. New Garden was disqualified six weeks after driving the victory in the March 10th Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg after IndyCar officials discovered the violation in the push-to-pass software that IndyCar believed gave the team an advantage. IndyCar discovered the software issue after the Sunday morning warm-up before the accurate Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 21st. Also disqualified was third-place finisher Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske. The St. Pete victory would have been New Garden's 30th career IndyCar win, but with the disqualification he goes back to 29 victories and Pato Award of Arrow McLaren is credited with the victory even though he finished second at St. Pete. Will Power of Team Penske was penalized but not disqualified because he did not utilize the push-to-pass software against regulations, but the software issue was also in his number 12 Chevrolet. An extensive review of data from the race on the streets of St. Petersburg revealed that Team Penske manipulated the overtake system so that the numbers 2, 3, and 12 cars had the ability to use push-to-pass on starts and restarts. According to the IndyCar rulebook, use of overtake is not available during championship races until the car reaches the alternate start-finish line. It was determined that Newgarden and McLaughlin gained a competitive advantage by using push-to-pass on restarts while Power did not. Additionally, all three entries have been fined $25,000 and will forfeit all prize money associated with the event on the streets of St. Petersburg. Newgarden held a media conference on Friday morning, April 26th at Barber Motorsports Park, where the IndyCar series reconvened for the April 28th Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix. Newgarden was highly emotional as he spoke to the media and explained his role in the violation of the push to pass regulations. Here's the first half of the complete media session involving Joseph Newgarden.

JOSEPH:

Good morning, everybody. I wanted to have this time. I appreciate everybody showing up at least to listen and interact. I thought it was really important to do this in person and have a conversation with everybody and be able to do that in this type of form. I didn't want to put out a statement or You know, try and do an interview over the phone or something like that. I just thought I thought it was really important to get in front of everybody and have an opportunity to chat, you know, with regards to the ST Petersburg race ruling. I think at this point it's it's really important to look at the facts of what happened and the facts are extremely clear. you know, there's, there's no doubt that, that we were in breach of the rules at st. Petersburg. You know, I, I used push to pass at an unauthorized time twice on two different restarts. And there's, you know, there's really nothing else to it other than that, that, that those are the rules and, and we did not adhere to them. I think it's, You know, for me, what's really important about that, too, is, you know, there's only one person sitting in the car. It's just me. And so that responsibility and the use of the push to pass in the correct manner falls completely on me. It is my responsibility to know the rules and the regulations at all points and to make sure that I get that right. And with that regard, you know, I failed my team miserably. It's like a complete failure from my side to get that right. You know, it's my job as the leader of the two car to not make mistakes like that. You cannot make a mistake at this level in that situation. There's no room for it. There's no room for that type of mistake anywhere, or certainly not at the top level of motor sports. And I don't want to, I don't want to hide from that. It's, you know, for me, it's, it's a, it's an embarrassing situation to have to go through. Um, to see what's transpired. It's demoralizing in a lot of ways. And there's nothing that I can say that changes the fact of what happened. It's pretty clear. So that's why I say I think the facts are most important right now. I think that's what really matters. I also think the truth is important. Um, and I think that there can be space for both of those things. So, you know, if there's anything that I wanted to come say to, I, I, I want to deeply apologize to, to our fans, our partners, my teammates, know, the competitors that I race against anybody that's in our community, you know, I, I've worked my entire career to hold myself to an incredibly high standard. And, you know, clearly I've, I've fallen very short of that in this respect. And, you know, once again, I mean, I can't overstate, it's just, it's, it's a difficult thing to wrestle with. It's very, you know, it's a very embarrassing process to go through. And, you know, I hope we can find a way forward after this. I mean, that's that's really all you can do is try and find a way forward after the fact. So I just wanted to come here and state that. And, you know, I appreciate everybody's time and let me let me speak.

MODERATOR:

We'll open it up for questions in person and then also try to take some off of Zoom. We'll begin in person, Bill. I think, Taylor, do you have another microphone on your side? But let everybody know, Bill, where you at, buddy? Let's start here with Nathan Brown in the front row. Nathan Brown from the Indianapolis Star. Then we'll go Bruce Martin from NBC and Forbes. Thanks, Nathan.

NATHAN:

Hey, Joseph. Thanks for doing this this morning. Your three pushes of push to pass on restarts at St. Pete, three seconds, 2.4 and 3.6 seconds on lap 72. Did you feel those instances in the car?

JOSEPH:

Of course. Yes. No, I mean, I I purposely was hitting the button. You know, the tough part is the intent. And I don't think that intent matters at this point. The facts are, when are you allowed to use push to pass? And the rules state that you're not allowed to use it until the all-star finish line, and I didn't. So yeah, it's very easy to tell when you're using the button. I know when I push the button. It's not anything that I would try and hide behind. It's also very obvious when you're using the button. It comes up on my dash. There's onboard cameras. People see the telemetry updates. It's not something that you would hide from and I'm not trying to hide from it. I know exactly when I pushed the button. So yeah, I, it's something you feel every single time. I mean, I don't know how you couldn't, it's a very obvious thing. The tricky thing about this whole situation is I didn't know I did anything wrong until Monday after long beach. It's the first time I heard that I broke rules. Um, I knew if getting to this bar was going to be difficult for me, um, You know, you guys can, you can call me every name in the book, you can call me incompetent, you can call me an idiot, call me an asshole, call me, you know, stupid, whatever you want to call me, but I'm not a liar. And the story that I know, which is the truth, is almost too convenient to be believable. And so to answer your question, no, I didn't leave St. Pete thinking we pulled something over on somebody. I didn't know that we did something wrong until this week. And then I've had to wrestle with the fact that, you know, how do you explain a situation to people? You know, I know what happened. I know why it happened. And I don't think it's very believable, even when I try and tell the story back. I don't think any of us believe it will be believable to somebody, but it's the truth. So no, just to answer your question, I didn't know I did something wrong in St. Pete. And maybe to elaborate on that, because there would be a follow-up, how did you know you didn't do something wrong? The key difference on the two-car, which is important to understand, is that somehow, some way, we convinced ourselves that there was a rule change to restart specifically with overtake usage. And you say, well, how do you how do you come up with this? This never happened before. The only place that this got introduced was with the thermal exhibition race. This it's the only time in my time in IndyCar where we've actually had a legitimate legal change of the push to pass system where it's going to be operatable or operable. at a time other than, you know, at the alt start finish line. It was going to be usable and qualifying too. There was a lot of discussion around it. And we somehow genuinely believed and convinced ourselves that at St. Pete, the rule was now you can use it immediately on restarts. You don't have to wait till the alt start finish line. It's going to be available immediately. And I even, I even wanted the team to, to remind me of this so that I didn't forget. I'm like, well, if I, you know, whenever you get something new as a driver, you're always like, please remind me that it's easy for me to forget this stuff with everything going on inside the car. And I, I, I specifically asked for that too. We, we, we all knew about that. And so. What's the craziest part of the story is the software issue that no one knew about just perpetuated that belief even further. So then you go through St. Pete, you go through Thermalware, it's an actual change and everybody's using it. And then you go to Long Beach and it's still in the car. And the first time that any of us hear about this software issue or mistake is a warm up. And the even crazier part of that is, even when you learn about the software issue that no one knew about, and it was fixed, I still believed the procedural difference on restarts was applied for Long Beach. I tried to do the exact same thing leading the race at Long Beach. I even pushed the button, I came over the radio, I said, hey, guys, the overtake's not working correctly. I said it throughout the whole first lap because it wasn't working right. I mean, I don't know how or why in your right mind you would do that. Why would I, you know, did I try and come up with a conspiracy and then cover the, it's not, the truth is somehow we got that mixed up and it somehow got entangled with the mistake and it's created some, ridiculously unbelievable storyline now. But the facts of the matter are, I used it illegally, I wasn't allowed to, and I can't change that. Whatever I say going forward will not change those facts. And it kills me that it doesn't. I wish I could go back in time and somehow reverse all this, but I can't. And I thought about this a lot. I was like, I don't want to just I don't want to put out a statement. You know, I two things matter to me, accountability, and we have to be held accountable for any sort of mistake, whether you meant to do it or not. We've got to be held accountable. And the truth matters to me. And, you know, today I want to be held accountable for what I did and the actions I took. And I want to tell people the truth. And those are the two things that I want to achieve this morning. So, you know, if I do that, I can leave here and I can feel good about anything going forward. Yeah, it's been a it's been a weird week, a very weird week. You know, I learned about this on Monday. I stayed in California with my family. We were there till Wednesday. I had a conversation with a couple of different people on Monday, which was the first time that I was able to put two and two together that won the software issue, you know, was a problem that we didn't know about. And that also you were we were incorrect. We did we didn't have the procedure correct. on what was allowed and not allowed now on restarts. And it's crazy how this works. When you do something wrong and you didn't know you did something wrong, it doesn't hit you immediately. You know, you get told that and you think, oh, wow, that's crazy to hear that this is what's happening. And then you move to Tuesday and it starts to really hit you that you're like, oh, this is a big problem now. This is a really big problem. And then it comes out on Wednesday and you know, there's a whole different set of emotions that come into play with that because it's a, it's a true reality and it's something you can't control. You know, none of us can control this. None of us can change it. And you know, it's all, I don't, I don't know how to describe it other than that. I've had to, you know, I've looked at everything. I don't know how you can't, you know, I, I know, I know what's been said. I, you know, I know how people feel and, and, and, and you just have to, I mean, what are you going to do? What are you, what are you going to do? You just have to live with it.

BRUCE:

Joseph, how have you worked through this mentally and emotionally to be able to deal with just the devastation that comes with this announcement?

JOSEPH:

Well, I, I actually, I feel a little bit, I feel better now. I, you know, I, I did think about this. I didn't have anything prepared today and I didn't want to have it prepared. I didn't want to rehearse anything. Of course I've thought about it. How could you not? I've been thinking about this nonstop for 48 hours. You know, I woke up at three a.m. this morning. I couldn't fall back asleep. I was like, man, I got to be rested to go speak to these guys. And, you know, I just. Yeah, I just I just wanted to. The truth is easy. It's so easy to just tell the truth. And I wanted to do that today. And I've left a little bit of room for this weekend. I've tried to, like, study and do my normal deal. So I'm hoping I'm going to be ready to go.

BRUCE:

And also the month of May is supposed to be a very joyous month for you as the defending winner of the Indianapolis 500 in some ways. How do you keep this from affecting some of that joy that you were going to have returning to the speedway?

JOSEPH:

Well, I'm still happy. I mean, look, I got the best job in the world and. I'm excited, I'm still excited, you know, I'm excited for this weekend. Should be good. Joey.

SCOTT:

Obviously, this has created a ripple through the paddock.

JOSEPH:

How do you earn the trust back of your competitors? I don't I don't know. I don't know how you do that. You know, you know, it's important to stay. And I think it's the truth. I don't know that anybody is going to believe what I've told you here today. And that's that's OK. I mean, I think it's a it's a crazy set of circumstances to try and, you know, just reason with. It's certainly not going to come from words, you know, I mean, it's just going to take, you know, repetitive action. And so that's, that's all you can do is just repetitive action. And hopefully, you know, I can stand on that in the future. So, you know, however long it takes or how many years, if I'm given the time, I'll just try and, you know, I'll just try and earn it through, through action.

PATRICK:

At St. Petersburg, when you were getting on the button again, but you misunderstand the procedure, et cetera, did you presume everybody else was also using it or did you think you had a competitive advantage?

JOSEPH:

Yeah. We all use it differently at different times. I didn't know what everybody else was doing. But if this is a procedure change, the one thing you don't want to do is not be on top of that. Because if someone else is using it, then you are at a disadvantage to not use it yourself. So I assumed, yeah, people would be using it. Why wouldn't they? Especially in those types of situations, you want to make sure you're covering it. If you have a good jump, you wouldn't use it. If you have a bad jump, you are going to use it. You know, these are the things you think about. And I would have, I would have assumed that everyone would have been, you know, under that, under that same operating style, if you will.

BRUCE:

We'll be right back to pit pass Indy after this short break.

JOSEPH:

Hey, everybody, this is Joseph Newgarden, winner of the 107th Indianapolis 500. And you're listening to Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental.

BRUCE:

Welcome back to this week's edition of Pit Pass Indy. Here is the second part of Joseph Newgarden talking to the media about his disqualification and how he will move on from the setback. Included in this segment is New Garden recalling his talk with team owner Roger Penske after the disqualification was announced.

JOSEPH:

That's not data that I that you just to be really clear for everyone here, that's not data that you look at after the race, I don't look at. Well, first off, I didn't review any of that stuff after the race. I mean, it was a good weekend. I did my notes. I watched the race back. I didn't assume anything was off or anything was different. You know, I mean, there's a reason that Will didn't use it. He the only person in and car that was under belief that there was a rule change was the two car. You know, there's a reason Scott only used it. One point nine seconds to I mean, he truly is just hitting it out of habit, which does happen. That's also true. I mean, I think I hit the thing 29 times is what's the stat that Tim said. It's all true data. I mean, I've used it. It's not like, oh, you're... We've also had jokes where you're like, oh, the overtake button, just hit it and maybe it'll work. That's also a true joke that's been stated. But out of habit, it's not unusual for people to hit it before it's activated. I mean, it's, it's very easy to do. I mean, typically that happens right before the all-star finish line. Maybe you hit it early, right? And you get a denied press and you have to hit it again. That's, that's the most typical case for it. So it's not unusual for someone to just hit it accidentally or hit it out of habit. I mean, there should be, it was actually, that was my first question this week. It was was my very first question. I said, okay, let's go back to the site. Cause I didn't, I didn't link these things. Right. Like at all on Sunday morning of long beach, I just assumed I was like, oh, well we have, we had an issue. They, this isn't, I'm learning about this an hour before the race. Okay. You're not, no one panicked. There was no deep dive into this. No, I still didn't know that there was anything amiss. Certainly not from St. Pete. So We fix all that, we go through the race. When I learned there was a real issue here, I go, how is this possible? Who safeguards this stuff? And then I learned after the fact that this has been possible for anybody at any point. So it's not, it's also not complex. It's very simple. If you break down exactly what happened, it's extremely simple what happened and anybody could, I, I, it kind of baffled me that anybody could have done that. There was no sort of checks and balance in place and I'm not trying to point the finger at anybody. It doesn't absolve us from anything, but I, I was, I was shocked to learn that that safe, there was no safeguard in place. It was just that this could, this could have happened at any point and no one knew about it. Yes, absolutely. You know, one thing I didn't state, which which was important for me to also say is I do believe the integrity of the series is absolutely paramount. You know, the series has to hold everybody accountable regardless of the circumstance, regardless of the intent. and they've done the right thing by trying to throw the book at us, and they should. It just doesn't matter what the intent was. If you broke a rule, you broke a rule, and you should suffer the consequences. And the series has to uphold that standard. And so it makes me proud that I'm a part of this series that does that. That's a series I want to be a part of. So I think the penalty's fair. It's crushing. you know, I'm going to look back on it too and say, well, I don't want that win on my books either. I don't, I don't want it. I'm glad they're taking it away. If it was tainted, then I don't, I don't want to be near it. Um, and unfortunately it is, you know, I can't reverse that in time and it's, it's, it's good. What's happened. I'm really pleased by it. I have spoken to him. I've spoken to him once and he did not take it well whatsoever. As you could imagine, you know, I was, I was interrogated at first. Um, And, you know, it's, it's, I don't want to speak on his behalf, but I've not met somebody with higher integrity than that man. And I mean that, so, you know, yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't taken well. Yeah. It's difficult. I mean, look, we, you know, I'll repeat, we hold ourselves to a really high standard, really high standard. I mean, everybody knows that, you know, and we don't have any room. We have no room. to, you know, deviate from that. And so, you know, whether you meant to make a mistake or, or you just did, it doesn't matter, you know, um, if it's by accident or by design, it's, it's not acceptable. And so it's, it's hard to, it's hard to wrestle with it, you know, when it happens, you know, regardless of the circumstances, um, you know, I can't speak on Roger's behalf, but just from my side, yeah, it's, I think we hold ourselves to a really high standard and, you know, we've, we've, Certainly I, I mean, I can speak for myself. You know, I fell short of it and I just apologize to anybody that, you know, we've offended with it. It's, it's, you know, you, I can't say much more than that. It's, I'm just, I'm sorry it happened.

NATHAN:

You told us coming to the season you had gotten off of social media just to try to keep a bit of a tunnel vision. Have you been able to do that in all of this, or has the noise been a little bit tough to avoid?

JOSEPH:

Yeah, noise has been tough. I don't know how you can't avoid it here. It's impossible. Um, I'm, I'm after today though. I, I think I'll feel better after leaving here. You know, this is what I wanted to do and I'll be able to get past it once I get back in the car. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I get it. I'd get it from anybody. You know, I, I saw Jay Fry for the first time yesterday. He asked me to come see him and I think he was just being nice. I think he wanted to be a friend. And, uh, you know, I, I, I sort of, I told Jay the story too, you know, and I was like, you know, Jay, this is what happened. And it's the saddest thing about it. It was, no one did this on purpose. That's the saddest thing. And even me telling Jay the story, I could, I could just tell, I could tell looking at him that even he was having a hard time believing it. I'm like, you gotta be, you know, what are you going to do? If this guy has a hard time believing it, how is anybody going to believe it? And you know, I, I can't, I can't, I can't affect that. I can't affect that. And so after today, I'm not going to concern myself with it because I just can't control it.

MODERATOR:

Bruce, last question. Go ahead.

BRUCE:

The fact that each OEM assigns an engineer to each car, were you surprised that the OEM engineer that was assigned to your car hadn't discovered this since they have all the data?

JOSEPH:

I think what I would say is I'm not surprised. I mean, no one genuinely believed we had done anything wrong. I mean, no one was looking for something inaccurate. You know, it's not something that just jumps out like a silver bullet. You know, it's, it's easy to, especially now learning how the software piece works, you know, it's something on the team side where it's, you know, it's, it's literally built into your preferences on your dash. There's, there's a digit there that, that literally sends this signal. I mean, I don't, I don't think it's something that we were looking for. I wasn't looking for it. I mean, I, I would have been, you know, I guess the, the, the beautiful thing is that there was an issue in long beach. If there wasn't an issue in long beach, I would have kept going on my merry way thinking that this was all normal. I mean, I, that's probably gotta be the, the, the good thing about it is that we didn't get halfway through the season. you know, maybe, maybe we would at that point, we'd be, you know, or maybe this weekend we would have learned that, look, we got the rule wrong or something like that. I can't, I can't predict that, but I just don't, I don't think anyone was looking for something inaccurate there. I don't, I don't know why they would, no one was under the belief that we were doing something inaccurate. I don't think that falls on, you know, I, I don't know that you can put that on anybody else.

BRUCE:

And one of the things about thermal was the thought that we're going to experiment with this and we may use it in future races. So would there be a little bit of a hollow feeling if this eventually gets to be an approved part of the procedure?

JOSEPH:

No, I don't know that it's going to be hollow. I mean, it's just it's embarrassing that no one else is responsible for knowing the rules and regulations like me. I'm the leader of my team and it falls squarely on me. it, but the, the, you just to go back to it, that is, it is what happened at thermal. There was, there was, it's the only way I can, I can see how we got that confused. I mean, I don't know how you confuse something like that. I mean, it, it did happen at thermal. It was, it was a, it was a thing that was put in place. So it's, you know, it's just, uh, it's just, it's embarrassing. It's an embarrassing thing to get wrong.

BRUCE:

We'll be right back to pit pass Indy after this short break.

SCOTT:

Hi, I'm Scott McLaughlin, driver of the number three Team Penske Chevy, and you're listening to Pit Pass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Rental.

BRUCE:

Welcome back to this week's Pit Pass Indy. And now, the tale of how Team Penske triumphed over adversity. Scott McLaughlin led 58 laps in the 90-lap Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix to score his fifth career IndyCar Series win. He defeated teammate Will Power by 1.3194 seconds to give team Penske a one-two sweep at Barber Motorsports Park. New Garden started eighth and finished 16th. But with two of its three cars finishing on the podium, team Penske had fought through the adversity of the week to celebrate another race victory. After an emotional week, race winner Scott McLaughlin joined me for this exclusive interview for Pit Pass Indy. From the depths of adversity earlier in the week to the thrill of victory on Sunday, our next guest is Scott McLaughlin, winner of the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix for the second year in a row. How do you even begin to describe the week that you've had?

SCOTT:

It's been very up and down, a bit like the race today, you know? But, you know, I'm just... I can't put into words how good the effort was from the team, the way we stuck together, particularly on the three car. It takes a lot of work, and as you know, to win a race in IndyCar, and for us to do it in that fashion is a proud moment after the week that we had.

BRUCE:

Of course, on Wednesday was when you got the news of your disqualification from the podium finish in the Firestone Grand Prix St. Petersburg on March the 10th. And I know there was a lot of bit of a gray cloud hanging over the team entering Barber Motorsports Park. But you guys were determined. You went back to work. And just how redemptive does this victory feel to you?

SCOTT:

Yeah, it's probably one of the coolest, I guess, feelings to come back. The biggest thing you need is belief, and we never lacked that. And we definitely felt like we had a good fast car, fast pit stops, great team. And just, yeah. I can't put into words how proud I am just of the team, not only the three car, Team Penske, the way that the leadership worked with everyone. It's a very transparent process and we'll just keep working hard to race with integrity and fix our reputation.

BRUCE:

The belief was also from your team owner, Roger Penske, who also owns IndyCar, but I believe he gathered everybody together here at Barber Motorsports Park, talked about how he's got your back, how proud he is of you, and how you guys are going to get through this. How important was that for Roger Penske to say that to the team?

SCOTT:

We all look up to Roger like, you know, huge. He's a tremendous businessman, a tremendous person. and a great boss, and we have a lot of respect for him, so for him to, you know, at the end of the day, it's his name, and we felt a, I guess there was a sense of there was a mistake made by the team, but it was something that we just had to rebuild and get on with, and when you've got a guy like that in your corner working hard and wanting to just get on with it, it puts a lot of confidence in everyone.

BRUCE:

Now, moving on from the points penalty, you were able to get a lot of positions back in the points championship with your victory at Barber Motorsports Park. If you keep your head down and keep racing, you can make it all up. Just how encouraging is that?

SCOTT:

Oh, it is very encouraging. It's a bummer that, you know, what happened will happen, but it is what it is. We just keep working hard and I'm just not, I'm not even gonna look at the points. I'm just gonna try and win as many races as I can and just get it done.

BRUCE:

You've got five career victories in IndyCar, but two of them have come at Barber. What is it about this course that works out so well for Scott McLaughlin?

SCOTT:

I don't know. It just suits me. The way I can... I love flowing the car. I love, you know, shipping the car in on a fast corners and enjoying the flow of that track. And it reminds me of places in Australia. And yeah, I just love the place.

BRUCE:

The other thing was you started on the pole, you led 58 laps, but you were battling your teammate Will Power. And in a lot of ways, you and Will know each other very well. How fun is it to race your teammate that hard, that fierce?

SCOTT:

Yeah, it's great. You know, I mean, obviously, it's always good when you come up on top. But, you know, there's a tremendous amount of respect between the two of us. And, yeah, he's a legend of the sport. And I'm very proud to call him a teammate and learn off him. And any time you can go toe-to-toe with him, you know it's going to be a big battle. And I really enjoyed it.

BRUCE:

Was Roger and victory lane or is he not here yet?

SCOTT:

He's not here today. He was here yesterday but I think he's at Dover with the NASCAR team, but It's hard. He's juggling a lot of racing series all over the world. But um, you know, I've already got text from him So that's the main thing

BRUCE:

So now Barber's in the rearview mirror, you're going to Rogers Track, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the month of May, biggest month of the year in IndyCar racing, starting with the Sanzio Grand Prix of Indianapolis, then the month of May, the 108th Indianapolis 500. So how thrilled are you to get up there and just your love of returning to the Indianapolis 500?

SCOTT:

There's there's not it's an amazing place. It's just a magical time of the year and in Indianapolis I live at the track for the whole month. It's just special got the dogs there the wife there runs there. So it's exciting times But we're um, we'll just keep pushing on and hopefully we can bring home the bacon There's been also some big news for you.

BRUCE:

You're going to be a father. Yeah, and with all of the emotion you've gone through from being a father, feeling your little girl's heartbeat inside your wife for the first time, to the disqualification, to victory in IndyCar, how do you even begin to describe the rollercoaster?

SCOTT:

It's been a rollercoaster, but at the end of the day, if you can get through anything, I've got great people around me to get through whatever it comes at us, and I fully trust that.

BRUCE:

Scott McLaughlin, congratulations on your victory in the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix. Good luck in the Indianapolis 500. Thank you for joining us today on Pit Pass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Rental.

SCOTT:

Thank you, Bruce.

BRUCE:

There was also some big news on Monday, April 29th, when Arrow McLaren Racing announced it was releasing 22-year-old driver David Maloukas from his contract after missing the fourth race of the season. Maloukas broke his left wrist in a mountain biking accident on February 11th and underwent surgery on February 13th. With pins and screws in his wrist and wearing a cast, Lucas has yet to return to the cockpit of an IndyCar. He never appeared in IndyCar competition for the Arrow McLaren team. By missing the fourth race of the NTT IndyCar Series season in Sunday's Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix, it triggered a clause in his contract that gave Arrow McLaren the option to terminate his services. Arrow McLaren exercised that option, and Malukas is no longer a member of the team. And that puts a checkered flag on this edition of Pit Pass Indy. We want to thank our guests, Team Penske's Joseph Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin for joining us on today's podcast. Along with loyal listeners like you, our guests helped make Pit Pass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Rental and Hy-Vee, your path to victory lane in IndyCar. On the highways, the raceways, and every pit stop in between, Penske Truck Rental keeps you moving forward. Gain ground with Penske. And for all your shopping needs, be sure to visit your local Hy-Vee, where there's a helpful smile in every aisle. For more IndyCar coverage, follow me at Twitter at BruceMartin, one word, uppercase B, uppercase M, underscore 500. This has been a production of Evergreen Podcast. A special thanks to our production team, executive producers are Bridget Coyne and Gerardo Orlando. Recordings and edits were done by me, Bruce Martin, and final mixing was done by Dave Douglas. Learn more at evergreenpodcast.com. Until next time, be sure to keep it out of the wall.