"I feel finally ready to win a championship": Scott McLaughlin makes his feelings known ahead of fifth IndyCar season

IndyCar driver Scott McLaughlin recently spoke about his shot at winning the 2025 IndyCar championship. NTT series’ official account on social media platform X uploaded a video on February 24, 2024, which featured the Team Penske driver as he answered the question about the title challenge.

Scott McLaughlin has been the lead Team Penske driver in the last couple of seasons finishing 3rd in the championship in 2023 and 2024. The Kiwi driver has scored the most points of all the Team Penske drivers over the last two seasons and feels that he is ready to take on the title fight in the upcoming season.

McLaughlin, 31, revealed how he's been near the top and has learned a great deal in the last few years. This makes him confident in pushing for the 2025 IndyCar championship. Speaking about the same, he said,

“Always hard to predict in IndyCar, but, you know, I certainly believe that I worked super hard for my team over the off season to be ready for what's ahead. And, you know, I predict us to be hopefully just as fast as we were at Indy this year, which is important.”

"And then from a championship perspective, you know, I predict myself to be there, or thereabouts because I just the amount I've learned in the last two, three years, I feel ready to finally win a championship.”

Scott McLaughlin won three races during the 2024 IndyCar championship, which is one more than championship winner Alex Palou. However, a poor start to the season including the disqualification in the season opener at St. Petersburg following the push to pass controversy held McLaughlin back from challenging for the title.

The Team Penske driver finished just 39 points away from champion Alex Palou. Had the Kiwi driver not been disqualified at St. Pete, the championship story might've been a different one.

“Consistency is Key”: Scott McLaughlin revealed the roadmap to IndyCar championship

Scott McLaughlin’s disqualification at St. Pete combined with the DNFs at the Grand Prix of Long Beach & Toronto and the finishes outside the Top 10 at Detroit and Laguna Seca held the Team Penske driver from winning the championship.

AUTO: AUG 16 NTT IndyCar Series Bommarito Automotive Group 500 - Source: Getty

McLaughlin sat down with IndyCar and detailed the roadmap for the IndyCar championship, highlighting the importance of consistent results and not having bad days at the track. He said,

“As much as you can plan and think about what you can do and what you can't, we all know the right path is just consistent results, with a few wins along the way. I think you need a couple wins. But consistency is key, and we all know that. But you've got to eliminate those big bad results, and we had a few of them last year, which really hurt."

On the Apex Hunters United podcast, James Hinchcliffe also highlighted how the DNFs cost Scott McLaughlin the IndyCar championship.