Scott McLaughlin makes feelings known after cementing Team Penske’s 70th IndyCar pole

The Penske driver Scott McLaughlin won pole position for the Indycar season opener at St. Petersburg, scheduled for March 2 in Florida. McLaughlin will lead the grid, with top five consisting of Colton Herta, Felix Rosenquist, Marcus Armstrong, and Christian Lundgaard.

The Christchurch native won pole position at the 2022 St. Petersburg Grand Prix, which marked the first pole position of his career. McLaughlin went on to win the race that day and secured his first win in his IndyCar series career, and a win from pole during this Grand Prix will mark his second victory from pole position.

Scott McLaughlin put in an impressive lap of 00.59.4624 seconds driving the #3 Penske, beating rival Colton Herta by 0.1769 seconds. St. Petersburg will mark his 69th race start.

Following the qualifying, McLaughlin shared his excitement via his X (formerly Twitter) handle and wrote:

"To. The. Moon.🚀 Starting the year of right! Amazing job by the crew to get the car sorted for today after our shunt yesterday. Lucy was hyped to get her first P1 hat with the #Thirsty3s! Now, let's go have a Sunday!🚀🚀🚀" McLaughlin wrote.

Notably, this pole marked McLaughlin's 11th career pole and Team Penske's 70th pole in the IndyCar series.

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Scott McLaughlin's pole a tribute to the team: "I had to repay them"

Supercars Winton SuperSprint - Source: Getty

Scott McLaughlin has had quite the weekend, starting with his contract extension with Team Penske, which took the paddock by storm. The New Zealander announced his multi-year contract with the team and expressed his delight over staying with the team.

However, things didn't really start the way McLaughlin would have wanted them to on Friday. During the first practice of the St. Petersburg Grand Prix, McLaughlin ended up clipping the wall and losing control of his car, causing significant chassis damage.

When Saturday rolled around, things started looking up, as McLaughlin managed to secure pole position for the team. Speaking to Paul Kelly of IndyCar, the #3 driver recapped his qualifying performance and credited his team, saying:

"Huge amount of respect; we have so much trust in each other, and they trusted I could do the job today.The guys and girls on this team, they’re stars. I had to repay them. I made a little silly mistake there, and I was glad to come back with them." McLaughlin stated.

Scott McLaughlin further went on to claim he wanted to get pole position just for 'good vibes'.

“I just wanted to get pole first race of the year. Good vibes. It’s just great vibes – immaculate vibes, we like to say. I’m very excited," he added.

The fans can catch all the race action unfold on FOX at 12:00 pm ET or the IndyCar Radio network on Sunday.