INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Scott McLaughlin waited 12 months to erase the worst memory of his life.
He spent the time contemplating the haunting images of a spinning car hitting the wall last May before the race had even started, his hands flapping in anger and the frustration sinking in as he climbed out. All the inconsolable McLaughlin could do was cover his face.
He's not going to blow it Sunday at another sold-out Indianapolis 500.
Instead, McLaughlin intends
to take full advantage of a second chance on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 2.5-mile oval, and he hopes to show everyone what he's learned and how resilient he's become as he tries to write a worst-to-first script.
“No doubt I’ve come back stronger from it,” he said. “I don’t think I’m driving differently this year because of it. I’m just looking forward to getting back into the race, creating a new storyline, getting on with it. I’d love to go zero to hero, of course, but driving with emotion like that is probably a detriment. I've just got to go out there, execute and see what I’ve got.”
The 32-year-old New Zealander has returned to Indy with a steadier, more determined mindset to prove he won't make the same mistake twice. He didn't duck any questions about what happened, even if it still seems inexplicable.
But at Team Penske, it's not just McLaughlin seeking redemption this weekend.
Last May might have been the worst for team founder Roger Penske since 1995, when neither of his two-time 500 winners — Al Unser Jr. or Emerson Fittipaldi — made the 33-car starting field, with the open-wheel split keeping Penske away from Indy for the next five years.
In 2025, the trouble started long before McLaughlin crashed while warming up his tires as he was driving past pit lane. Two-time defending champion Josef Newgarden and 2018 Indy 500 winner Will Power were both penalized following a post-qualifying inspection that showed each car had illegally modified rear attenuators.
It marked the second time in 14 months The Captain's team had been tarnished by a cheating scandal. In April 2024, Newgarden was stripped of his win and McLaughlin lost his third-place finish at the season-opening race in St. Petersburg because they improperly used the push-to-pass button on restarts — a rule that was changed earlier this month after a dozen drivers did the same thing at Long Beach. The new rule will allow all 33 drivers to use it on restarts Sunday, the first time on an oval.
“What happened there was a nothing burger,” Newgarden said when asked about Long Beach. “I mean look, I don't have much to say about it, it doesn't matter to me. I'm here in Indianapolis.”
But the second infraction sent both cars to the back of the starting grid, essentially ending Newgarden's opportunity to become the first driver in race history with three straight 500 wins and Power's chance to add a second Indy crown in his contract year. Three key team executives —president Tim Cindric, IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski and IndyCar general manager Kyle Moyer — were fired.
The three drivers' race-day results were subpar, too, for a team with a record 20 Indy wins. Power was the team's best finisher, in 16th and one lap behind the leaders. Newgarden dropped out with 66 laps to go and came in 22nd. And McLaughlin, Penske's top qualifier, didn't complete a single lap.
This year, McLaughlin and Newgarden came back to Indy with a new teammate, David Malukas, who drives the No. 12 car Power occupied for more than a decade. McLaughlin also has a new race strategist, Cindric.
And while Malukas and McLaughlin already have put Team Penske in more favorable position this May, starting third and ninth, Newgarden struggled in qualifying. He'll start 23rd, in the middle of Row 8, though it's still a nine-spot improvement over last year's starting spot. The combination at least gives Penske's team a fighting chance on the track he owns.
“I'm just going into it like I do any race,” Malukas said when asked about starting on the outside of Row 1. "I'll just watch previous race starts from that position, just getting a collection of data to see where people funnel out, funnel in. I'll just go with the flow.”
Newgarden, however, will have to manage traffic all around him after earning his worst starting spot since 2013 with the exception of last year's penalty.
And then there's McLaughlin, who has a second chance to prove to his fans and the team that last year was an aberration and this year could have a storybook ending.
“I feel like last year sucked and stunk, but it’s part of my journey,” he said. “I feel like I’ve gotten years of experience in one. It was a tough thing. I never wish that upon my worst enemy, as I’ve said. It’s something I’ve grown from, for sure. But it put a lot of perspective in my life.”
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