IndyCar: Scott McLaughlin has gone from Kiwi to living the American Dream
Thirty-year-old Scott McLaughlin has only lived in the United States for roughly three years, yet he’s already had the opportunities to explore the country more than most Americans will ever do in their entire lives.
Born in New Zealand, the Team Penske driver moved to Australia at age nine. There, he would become one of the most decorated drivers in Supercars history with three championships, 56 wins and 76 pole positions.
But when the opportunity arose to come to America and give IndyCar racing a shot, McLaughlin jumped at it.
So far, success has come early.
McLaughlin made his IndyCar debut in the 2020 season finale on the streets of St. Petersburg, won Rookie of the Year honors in 2021 and scored the first three wins of his open-wheel career in 2022.
Now he returns to Portland International Raceway, the site of his most dominant performance in the series to date.
Last year, McLaughlin started the Grand Prix of Portland from the pole and led all but six laps en route to the victory. That win kept him mathematically eligible to win the series championship the following weekend at Laguna Seca.
While his teammate Will Power would be the eventual champion, McLaughlin proved he truly belonged in IndyCar with that Portland win.
Only Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou and Scott Dixon have a chance to clinch the title this year, so McLaughlin will have to wait another year to try to hoist the Astor Cup. But he still has a chance to improve on his fourth-place finish in the standings from last year.
Oh, and of course, he has the chance to go back-to-back at PIR as well.
“There's not a bad thing about going to the track when you’re the defending race winner,” McLaughlin said in an interview with Auto Racing Digest. “There’s posters of your car from last year when you won - it’s pretty awesome.
"You just want to repeat that and get that feeling again. It’s very hard to do in IndyCar these days, but I think we’re in a really good spot as a team. We got some great engines behind us and great speed so there’s no reason why we couldn’t go back-to-back.
“For me it’s important that we move our way forward. I think we can get second in the championship. I think we’ve had some good results in the last three races. We can really get some momentum going. All it takes is a couple bad races from the drivers in front of us and we can leap-frog our way forward.
"You don’t hope that - especially on a teammate (teammate Josef Newgarden is currently ranked third in the standings) - but I feel like we’ve been in some pretty good spots lately to move our way forward so that’s our focus: full steam ahead and push to the last lap at Laguna Seca.”
Living in America
Though he may be from down under, McLaughlin has been well aware of the IndyCar Series since a young age. Living on Australia's Gold Coast, IndyCar’s annual visit to Surfer's Paradise from 1991 to 2008 was always one of the biggest events of the year.
“I remember watching Will Power and Helio Castroneves there,” McLaughlin said. “I watched the last IndyCar race that they had there. It was something that I always wanted to be a part of.”
When fellow Kiwi Scott Dixon - another driver who McLaughlin watched growing up - won the Indy 500 in 2008, it was a huge deal in New Zealand.
“That’s something I’ll never forget for sure,” McLaughlin said.
Obviously, to achieve his dream of racing in IndyCar, McLaughlin had to move to the United States. During his first season, he released a YouTube video series called “Scott Learns America”, where he explored American culture by making visits to different attractions.
And learn America he did.
In the video series, McLaughlin visited a BBQ restaurant and learned about bull riding while in Texas, visited the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and went bar hopping in Nashville with teammate (and Nashville native) Josef Newgarden.
Most importantly, he visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum while in Indy.
McLaughlin also met his wife Karly - a school teacher from Long Island - while in America, though this happened in 2016 while in Las Vegas for an international karting tournament. The couple lived together in Australia before moving to North Carolina when McLaughlin began pursuing his IndyCar career.
In his free time, McLaughlin enjoys playing golf with NASCAR drivers Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace. A massive sports fan, he’s adopted the New York Mets and Rangers (Karly’s favorite teams) - as well as the Carolina Panthers - as new favorite teams to cheer for.
McLaughlin is currently in the process of getting his Green Card and has enjoyed his time becoming acclimated to American culture.
“I’ve probably had a few cheat codes along the way as well so I’ve learned pretty quickly how it goes,” McLaughlin said. “I’m pretty pumped to be here and hopefully I can be here for a long, long time.”
A Kiwi Invasion
McLaughlin isn’t the only driver from New Zealand who has found success in professional motorsports. He’s not even the only Kiwi currently racing in IndyCar.
As mentioned previously, Dixon has found plenty of success in his 20-plus-year IndyCar career, winning the Indy 500 in 2008 and six series championships. His teammate, fellow Kiki Marcus Armstrong is on track to winning Rookie of the Year honors, despite skipping the five oval rounds this season.
And of course, Shane Van Gisbergen made headlines this July when he won the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race on the streets of Chicago in his first race ever in a stock car.
Despite being a relatively small country, New Zealand punches way above its weight when it comes to producing race car drivers?
So why is that? Are they putting something in the water down there or does the country just have a strong car culture?
“I think a bit of both,” McLaughlin said. “I feel like there’s a really high pedigree of motorsport in New Zealand.
“I think we all work pretty hard. We all grew up together racing against quality competition. We’ve been lucky.
“Forever, we’ve had great drivers all over the world but I feel like myself, Shane, Brendon Hartley (former Formula One driver currently competing in the World Endurance Championship), Nick Cassidy (who won the Formula E race at Portland back in June) - there’s so many of us around the world doing good things.
"I think it’s such a great endorsement for New Zealand motorsport and the people who support us to get to the top and allow us to show our talents. I think it puts the country on the map, which I think is a pretty cool thing.”
Having competed against each other in Supercars, McLaughlin and Van Gisbergen regularly keep in touch. McLaughlin says SVG has been asking him a lot of questions about moving to America since he'll be doing the same soon.
"I’m super excited for him and I think he’s done what he needed to do in Australia," McLaughlin said. "I’m super excited that he’s considering moving to America to come try different things. It’s going to be hard for him. It’s going to be hard settling into the lifestyle. It’s a lot different than what we’re used to, as much as you’d think it could be the same. It is different but I’ll allow him to lean on me as much as he can and hopefully he enjoys it as much as I do."
As for trying to convince SVG to give IndyCar a shot?
"I don’t know whether he’d fit in the car," McLaughlin said with a laugh. "I mean, he’s a pretty big dude." (Van Gisbergen is 6’2”, much taller than the average IndyCar driver).
"I’ve tried but it's just a matter of having the right opportunities. But I think he’s got a great opportunity to be solidly in the NASCAR Cup Series. Trackhouse (Racing) has great cars and is a great time, so I think he’d be mad not to try and take that opportunity up.
"But I’m sure he’d maybe want to try the Indy 500. But we haven’t spoken too much about that yet. Right now it’s just a matter of him getting to America and chasing that NASCAR dream."
McLaughlin looks to defend his victory in the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET (NBC).