Team Penske looking to bring recent success into race day
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Scott McLaughlin, Will Power, and Josef Newgarden swept the first row of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, the first time that Team Penske captured the first three spots since 1988.
Now, Team Penske is looking for its 20th Indianapolis 500 win.
Not only were they dominant against the field, but McLaughlin specifically was historically good. He set the record for the fastest pole speed at 234.220 mph.
Now, he’ll look to get his first Indianapolis 500 win. He’s made three starts in his career at “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” but has yet to finish better than 14th, which he did last year.
“I’m just hitting my stride now around the speedway, which is a nice feeling, but you can never get ahead of yourself,” McLaughlin said. “I think you’re always learning out here and hopefully we’ll keep learning in a good way by winning the race this week.”
Drivers are now heading into the home stretch in preparation, with just three days remaining before race day.
“I think we’ve worked really hard on our cars and our little details that make us a little bit quicker, and I think we’ve worked really well, the three of us,” McLaughlin said. “So, I think we’re in a really good spot mentally as a team.”
But despite working well as a team, that all goes out the door on race day. They said it’s good for the higher-ups with the team, like Roger Penske, but it’s every man for themselves once the green flag is waived.
Simon Pagenaud was the last driver to win from Team Penske in 2019 before Newgarden won last year. While he’s not competing in the race on Sunday, he will still be participating in the race day activities. He’ll be taking Gil de Ferran’s winning car from 2003 in a parade lap around the track in memory of de Ferran, who passed away in December.
The 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 is set to start at 12:45 p.m. Sunday unless any changes are made due to weather.