McLaughlin Makes a Splash in St. Pete; Takes First IndyCar Win

The 2022 IndyCar season kicked off in dramatic fashion Sunday, as Scott McLaughlin took a dominant victory from pole in St. Petersburg. With only one caution for a wreck involving David Malukas, the race fell into a strategy battle, with Dixon, Veekay, and McLaughlin leading throughout the race as the different strategies came and went. Veekay pulled off a stunning middle stint, as he went 41 laps on a set of alternate red tires, and Dixon led until lap 80, going on an alternate strategy. 

Polesitter Scott McLaughlin took off early, building a lead to Colton Herta and Will Power. The first stage of the race was relatively calm, with a chaotic first lap straightening out as teams began to shape their strategy. The race proceeded caution free until lap 28, when rookie David Malukas understeered out of turn 3 into the wall, knocking his DCR w/HMD car out of the race and bringing out a full-course caution. The caution came near the end of the first fuel window, as the field was split on strategy, with 11 cars having already pitted. The only car to stay out that had not previously pitted was Alexander Rossi, which backfired in about 5 laps when he ran low on fuel and cycled to the back. The race remained green the rest of the way, with several varying strategies. 

Rinus Veekay took an ambitious gamble, staying out almost 4 laps beyond the assumed fuel stint distance, and doing it on a pair of the red alternate tires, although his ambitious strategy backfired a little bit when he had to save fuel at the end and lost several spots in the closing laps. The closing laps featured an extraordinary battle between several cars for the fourth position, as Colton Herta took the fourth spot, followed by Romain Grosjean. At the front, Alex Palou caught Scott McLaughlin with ten laps to go, closing the gap down to just a second as Jimmie Johnson fought McLaughlin to stay on the lead lap. With only three laps remaining, Palau drew even to McLaughlin’s bumper and pressed all he could, but wasn’t able to get past the Kiwi. 

McLaughlin took his first victory and pole this weekend, led 49/100 laps, and led Practice 2. That’s by any metric a dominant weekend, and far above anything he showed in 2021. It does, however, remind us of his time in Australian Supercars, where he won three titles and set lap records at Mount Panorama. Combined with Power’s performance, this looks as if Penske has it together. The same cannot be said for Arrow McLaren, who couldn’t find pace all weekend, and failed to execute the alternate strategy for O’Ward. Alexander Rossi and Josef Newgarden had particularly terrible results, finishing P20 and P16 respectively. This is not a good start for Rossi, who has been rumored as a driver possibly on the hot seat. With almost a month to the next race, we will have to see who can come up with solutions.