A wild and chaotic day at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course wasn’t enough to derail Scott McLaughlin, who scored his second Indycar victory of the season in The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.
Driving the No. 3 Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet, McLaughlin held off reigning champion Alex Palou over the final 17 laps, beating him to the finish line by 0.5512 seconds.
“This is amazing,” McLaughlin said. “I’m really proud of the (Team Penske crew). The car they gave me was a little hard to drive toward the end. I would love to make it a little bit easier for myself, but I’m super proud of them.
“You’re thinking about fuel (at the end of the race), but thankfully Chevy gave us great fuel mileage and drivability off the restarts that allowed me to get a bit of a gap from Palou.”
McLaughlin led 45 of the final 52 laps. Colton Herta led seven laps after not pitting under caution on Lap 53 while the rest of the leaders pitted. McLaughlin got the lead back on Lap 60 and never looked back, keeping Palou in his mirror through a series of cautions and restarts.
McLaughlin’s third podium of the season and Palou’s fourth allowed them to close in on the leaders of the Indycar championship. Marcus Ericsson held his points lead with a sixth-place finish, but he is now just 20 points ahead of Power. Josef Newgarden, who finished seventh, is third, 34 points further back.
Palou rose to fourth in the standings, just 35 points back. McLaughlin jumped two positions to seventh in the standings, 69 points behind Ericsson.
While McLaughlin’s surge in the championship standings will be beneficial down the road, the three-time Australian V8 Supercars champion was basking in the glory of scoring his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES win with his parents, Wayne and Diane, in attendance. The couple came to the United States in May for the “500” and reunited with their son for the first time in two and a half years. This was the first race they’ve seen him win in this series.
“Oh, I really wanted to get a win here with mum and dad for the first time,” McLaughlin said. “To have mum and dad here on America’s weekend is awesome.”
