After an unapproved engine change dropped Scott McLaughlin down six places further on the grid for Sunday’s (Aug. 25) Grand Prix of Portland, the three-time Supercars champion had a large mountain to climb if he was going to gain on those around him in the NTT IndyCar Series title fight around Portland International Raceway.
McLaughlin made the best he could out of a challenging weekend, finishing seventh after starting 20th, completing 110 laps around the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course. Despite his gains through the field, the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet was still over 42 seconds behind teammate Will Power who picked up his third win of the 2024 IndyCar season.
“I’m buggered, I’m tired. It was a hard charge but the Freightliner Chevy was good and the Thirsty 3’s were rapid on the pit stops,” McLaughlin said. “I said a top seven today would be like a podium, so I’m proud of that one and can’t wait to get home and head to the final three races on ovals where we’ve proven that we’ve been pretty good this year.”
After the caution for Scott Dixon‘s first lap incident, McLaughlin and his crew were able to run a bit longer on their first stint of the race, pitting on lap 31 after moving up to 11th on track as others pitted. McLaughlin’s crew put on a new set of the red sidewall alternate compound tires for the next stint, giving McLaughlin more grip than the black sidewall primary compound tires.
The 2022 Portland International Speedway winner gained three spots almost immediately after exiting pit road and pitted from fourth place on lap 60. During that pit stop sequence, McLaughlin jumped up from 13th to 10th, which became ninth on lap 69 after McLaughlin passed Kyle Kirkwood.
McLaughlin pitted for the final time on lap 85, falling from seventh to eighth. That position went back to McLaughlin after Christian Lundgaard made his final pit stop a few laps later and McLaughlin was not challenged for the rest of the race.
“You’ve just got to trust that once you get clear you can hit the lap time,” McLaughlin said of his ability to gain positions during the pit cycles. “But you can’t make mistakes either. It’s a credit to my crew, they kept me level headed throughout the whole race. There were a couple of times I got a little heated as you do.
“But overall, I’m disappointed with yesterday, that’s on me. Can’t do that if you’re on a championship run, but hey we’re still in it and until I’m mathematically out of it, I don’t care, I’m still in it so press on.”
After failing to advance from the first round of qualifying on Saturday, McLaughlin was 14th on the initial qualifying report. However, IndyCar assessed a six grid position penalty for McLaughlin after qualifying finished, dropping the 2019 Bathurst 1000 co-winner to 20th on the 28-car starting grid.
McLaughlin blamed his inability to get a good enough gap to the cars around him for why he didn’t get through to the second round of qualifying.
After his result, McLaughlin is now 88 points behind points leader Alex Palou with three races remaining in the 2024 IndyCar season.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.