MADISON, Ill. - Two races into the 2024 IndyCar season, Scott McLaughlin sat last (29th) in points in the wake of Team Penske's push-to-pass scandal. Somehow, some way with less than a month left in the 2024 campaign, he's got a puncher's chance at catching points-leader Alex Palou and orchestrating a historic comeback.
McLaughlin's chances only continued to rise Friday after capturing the ninth pole of his still-young IndyCar career - his fourth consecutive oval weekend where he's captured one, dating back to last year's visit to World Wide Technology Raceway. Unlike last year's pole performance, the Team Penske driver will get to keep the front-row starting spot after having to surrender it a year ago due to a nine-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change.
That, combined will the misfortunes of others still in the throws of the title chase - nine-spot grid penalties for Palou and 3rd-place Scott Dixon, as well as a crash in qualifying for 4th-place Colton Herta - makes Saturday's late-afternoon affair a prime opportunity to shoot up the rankings still with five races remaining.
"100%. No doubt," McLaughlin replied when asked by IndyStar after qualifying of whether he still considered himself part of the title contenders, sitting 83 points back in 6th coming into the weekend. "Anything can happen in this sport. It takes one bad race from Palou, and everyone is jumping down his neck.
"I think we're well in reach to get there if we can perform well on the ovals, which I know I feel comfortable on right now. There's no doubt in my mind we can get there. 100% confidence."
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WWTR stands as perhaps McLaughlin's strongest track, from historical performance, on the calendar, with all three of his starts falling in the top-5 - including a podium performance (3rd) in 2022. And, he added, he and Team Penske as a whole excelled in the series' Open Test in June, giving him high hopes heading into that doubleheader on Labor Day weekend.
The race between now and then? Portland International Raceway, where he won from pole in 2022.
"And it doesn't take thankfully too long [for me] to learn some ovals, so Nashville (the host of the season-finale where IndyCar hasn't raced since 2008) I think a lot of people are going to be learning, and I feel like I can get on top of it as best as anyone," McLaughlin said. "You've got to have that confidence in yourself - that ability.
"Hopefully we can put ourselves in position over these next coming races."
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>>At a track where he's only ever finished on the podium in an Indy car and where he swept the Indy Lights weekend in 2021, David Malukas will start next to McLaughlin on the front row after qualifying 3rd and jumping up a spot, due to the nine-spot grid penalty of his Meyer Shank Racing teammate Felix Rosenqvist (due to taking on a fifth engine after Toronto), who qualified second-best on Friday.
>>McLaughlin's Team Penske teammates Josef Newgarden (3rd) and Will Power (4th) will share the second row for Saturday's race as both, like this weekend's polesitter, hope to take large chunks out of Palou's championship cushion. Power sits closest to Palou entering the weekend, 49 points back entering a track where he's registered three podium finishes and one victory (2018) in eight career starts. Virtually out of the title race with a 145-point gap to Palou - significantly hindered by losing 53 points from his season-opening St. Pete win after Penske's scandal - Newgarden, a four-time WWTR winner, needs a win Saturday if he has any hope of working his way into the title picture while sitting 8th.
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>>Like Rosenqvist, both Palou and Dixon elected to take nine-place grid penalties this weekend, further hampering their so-so qualifying performances of 7th and 10th, respectively. They'll start 16th and 19th Saturday - the former spot where Dixon started a year ago before he orchestrated an epic fuel-save comeback win by virtue of taking at least two pit stops fewer than any other driver who finished in the top-10. Two of the series' other title contenders - Pato O'Ward (5th in points) and Kyle Kirkwood (7th) - have some ground to make up to McLaughlin, starting 8th and 5th, respectively, but will start Saturday a few rows ahead of the championship leader.
>>Herta, who paced a nine-car test at WWTR earlier this month, ran the third fastest Lap 1 qualifying time during the series of single-car, two-lap sessions, but lost the rears between Turns 1 and 2 of his second and final lap and backed it into the outside wall, dropping him to last (25th) of those who completed qualifying attempts Friday. For a driver still looking for the first oval podium of his six-year IndyCar career, and on a weekend where a strong qualifying performance was going to give him an early advantage to make up ground on Palou while sitting 57 points back in 4th, the error was a considerable blow to his title bid immediately following his first win in two years at Toronto last month.
>>Outside the title-contenders and MSR's pair of top-3 qualifying performances, Juncos Hollinger Racing's tandem of Romain Grosjean and Conor Daly - who's making his first start with the team this weekend after replacing Agustin Canapino for the rest of the season - shined brightest in the field. The duo qualified 8th and 12th, respectively, after both excelled at the private test earlier this month. By virtue of others' grid penalties Saturday, JHR's cars will start 6th and 9th, respectively - both well in line for a top-10, which both drivers said they'd be more than satisfied with coming into the weekend.
17. Pietro Fittipaldi, No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
23. Christian Lundgaard, No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
25. Colton Herta, No. 26 Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian