Leading 87 of 95 laps from pole at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca to win the IndyCar season finale snapped a 35-race winless streak dating back to 2024, but for Scott McLaughlin, crossing the line first meant something much deeper than the record books. It’s his eighth career win, but first as a father.
“A bit of everything, to be honest. I'd say a little bit of relief because I've been promising Lucy for a long time a race win,” McLaughlin said, referring to his daughter. “She has no idea. She gave me nothing on FaceTime before. That's part of it.”
The 33-year-old New Zealand native, piloting the #3 Team Penske Chevrolet, brought Team Penske its 312th IndyCar Series victory while wrapping up the 2026 season sixth in the standings – bolstered by one win, four podiums, seven top-fives, 12 top-10s, and three poles. Bookending a hard-fought year where he led both the first and final lap of the championship, the triumph hit a personal high mark.
“I'm very excited,” McLaughlin said. “I said on TV, for me to win as a dad, I've been wanting to win for Lucy so much. That's the main thing.”
Lucy hunni, Daddy won a race! #Thirsty3s #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/JHcVZqetqU
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) September 7, 2026
Turning the Tide
Joined post-race by Team Penske President Jonathan Diuguid, McLaughlin reflected on how a summer breakthrough set the stage for their Laguna Seca dominance.
“A culmination of some hard work,” McLaughlin said. “I think the whole team, all three cars, just been working on basically I think from the Mid-Ohio test for us, at least on my car, we found a bit of a direction. Always felt, yeah, Raul was my guy. We've been having that good energy, that feeling that we could do this, but it was just about putting the parts together.”
Conquering Laguna Seca held extra significance given the team's past struggles on similar layouts.
“Today was fantastic,” McLaughlin said. “We've had poles. Haven't quite completed the races. You could see that it was there. Really proud to get our first win together on a road course where the last couple years we probably struggled at the most.
“Yeah, what a great way to end the season. We have a lot of hard work to do over the off-season to come back stronger, combat against the #10 (Alex Palou). I think J.D. (Diuguid) would agree, it's just a good finish to the season, gets everyone excited.”
Mastering the Final Stint
Holding off late-race surges required tactical finesse on primary hard tires, where tire degradation was a challenge.
“I was probably surprised how bad I was at the end of a black tire stint,” McLaughlin said. “But we made it progressively better. That's what you need to do.” He pointed to in-car setup tweaks and complete trust with race engineer Raul Prados as the key to staying out front.
“That's a lot of trust in myself and Raul, figuring out what rear bar and front bar we want, all that jazz,” McLaughlin said. “Like I said, it's good.”
When Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood went on the softer alternate compound tires late in the race, McLaughlin stayed composed.
“I was thankful that Kirkwood had reds to put on at the end,” McLaughlin said. “He was quick on the blacks. I knew if I could just get through the out-laps, then control that first part of the stint, he would probably die off a little worse than I would. That's sort of what happened.”
Asked if he ever felt the pressure of a shrinking margin, he countered: “No. My goal was to keep it at two seconds the whole time.”
A man for the fans. pic.twitter.com/fic6RveqFj
— Team Penske (@Team_Penske) September 6, 2026
Belief on the Pit Stand
McLaughlin made a point to credit the entire #3 crew, highlighting performance engineer Malcolm Finch alongside Prados for their joint effort.
“Yeah, I'm so happy for him (Prados). Malcolm Finch gets forgotten as well. He's my performance engineer. He's been fantastic,” McLaughlin said. “For us to get that success, we never stopped believing. We knew we could do it. It was a matter of putting it together and the feeling that I needed to go fast and trust the car. Really sort of hit on that this weekend, but even the last couple events. Thought we've been on a bit of roll.
“Yeah, the three of us working well. I think the whole #3 stand is fantastic. T.C. (Tim Cindric, race strategist) was amazing on the radio. His experience was fantastic. Dave Faustino. Everyone, really, the last few events, basically since June, July, I think we've been really, really good. It's just getting some car pace to control like we did today. It was awesome.”
Looking back at the team's execution across every session, he added: “Yeah, it's just a good, good day. Good day. It's cool to just have a good weekend. I mean, we were top five every session. Just from the jump felt like we had really good speed.”
Even as he prepares to take the trophy home to Charlotte, the driver remains focused on continuous evolution before 2027.
“Yeah, we'll celebrate it, but we'll learn from it, too,” McLaughlin said. “I don't think we were that great across the stints. We need to figure out why we're using the rear tires a little bit more than the 27 there. Yeah, I'm very happy, but there's work to be done.”
