New Zealand's McLaughlin Wins Second Straight Alabama IndyCar Race

Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Apr, 2024) New Zealand's Scott McLaughlin, stung as part of a Penske Racing cheating scandal, captured his fifth career IndyCar victory on Sunday by winning his second consecutive Alabama Indy Grand Prix.

The 30-year-old Kiwi driver won from the pole by outlasting Australian teammate Will Power and leading 58 of the 90 laps over a 2.3-mile, 17-turn road course at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.

McLaughlin said Penske had nothing to prove but was overjoyed at the 1-2 finish alongside Power.

"We just had to keep rolling," said McLaughlin. "We know our job. We know what we needed to do. I'm just super proud of the execution. The Chevy was so good. We just showed our pace."

McLaughlin did call it one of the top wins of his career.

"It's a good one, drove one of our best drives," he said. "Just execution and wanting to knock out the laps and bring it to the checkered flag."

Power, also punished as part of the Penske controversy, was second with Swedish rookie Linus Lundqvist third, Sweden's Felix Rosenqvist fourth and Spain's Alex Palou, the reigning series champion, in fifth.

Power admitted he did not attack McLaughlin as hard as he might have in the final laps to avoid risking a wreck to ruin both their days.

"You don't want two Penske cars out of the race with everything that has been going on," Power said. "We got back to where we needed to be."

American Colton Herta, who finished eighth, seized the season points lead on 101 to 100 for Power, 98 for Palou and 94 for New Zealand's Scott Dixon with McLaughlin 42 adrift.

McLaughlin forfeited a third-place finish in the season opener at St. Petersburg and US teammate Josef Newgarden forfeited the victory after a Long Beach tech inspection last weekend showed their cars were altered to use "push to pass" overtake power on starts and restarts -- against IndyCar rules.

Penske Racing said the changes were made for a pre-season engine test and mistakenly not changed back before the season began.

McLaughlin said his 1.9 seconds using the extra power came from habit and he had no idea of the car changes. Newgarden also denied knowing of the change and said his 29 seconds pushing the button were because he thought the rule had been changed, an excuse he admitted would be hard for rivals to believe.

Newgarden, a winner in three of the past eight Barber races who finished 16th, said before the race he had not spoken to any other driver about the matter.