Scott McLaughlin ends winless drought with dominant victory in Monterey
- Jeffrey Hrunka
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
Jeffrey Hrunka - INDYCAR Contributor
Monterey, CA - A drawn-out drought comes to an end for Scott McLaughlin in the Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey. After two years, McLaughlin finds victory lane with Team Penske holding off a charging Kyle Kirkwood, who takes second-place honors in the championship standings at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday afternoon.
“A culmination of some hard work,” McLaughlin, driver of the No.3 Team Penske Chevrolet, said. “I think the whole team, all three cars, just been working on it, basically. I think from the Mid-Ohio test for us, at least on my car, we found a bit of a direction.”
McLaughlin led 87 laps to take his first victory at Laguna Seca, and his eighth with Team Penske in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. The result marks a season-long struggle for the team to find pace on road courses. While teammate David Malukas, driver of the No.12 Chevrolet, regularly showed promise on these circuits, it was McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden, driver of the No.2 Chevrolet, who consistently found themselves one step behind.
“I would say it's a tough season. We won three races this year, which isn't something to shake a stick at,” President of Penske Racing Jonathan Duiguid said. “I think as an organization we're definitely heading in the right direction. Our performance has been strong. Like Scott mentioned, it's all about execution.”
Speed on Saturday was essential for drivers who wanted to be in contention for the win in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Monterey. With limited passing throughout the race, drivers had to heavily rely on strategy to move through the field. This only worsened when the dominant three-stop strategy was the fastest on track.
For drivers who attempted to run long, a near-completely green race meant they couldn’t catch a caution to flip their strategy. The only on-track incident for a caution was between Sting Ray Robb, driver of the No.77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, and Dennis Hauger, driver of the No.18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda, in Turn 6 on Lap
This kept the race between those who qualified out front.
Kirkwood, driver of the No.27 Andretti Global Honda, who started sixth, was able to slice through the field by allowing those around him to gamble and make mistakes. He was only able to get within 1.3 seconds of McLaughlin’s gearbox before his primary “black” compound tires fell off.
“We played it a little bit safer than I might have hoped for the last race of the season, but we had to for the championship. We made all the decisions based on that,” Kirkwood said. “I hope people consider us as the second-best team. We have a lot to build off of, right? We made a huge jump year over year.”
The championship conversation entering the weekend was all about who could take second place in the INDYCAR driver standings. Teammates Pato O’Ward, driver of the No.5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, and Christian Lundgaard, driver of the No.7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, were Kirkwood's competition.
Kirkwood held the second-place position heading into last weekend’s races at Milwaukee, but a podium by Lundgaard and two consecutive wins by O’Ward made it a tight three-way fight.
“We played it a little bit safer than I might have hoped for the last race of the season, but we had to for the championship,” Kirkwood said. “We made all the decisions based on that.”
Alexander Rossi rounded out the podium places, earning his first since visiting Monterey two years ago with Arrow McLaren. For the American-based driver, the result marked the end of what has been a difficult season mired back in the standings.
A third-place finish looks to be a positive end to a disastrous season for Ed Carpenter Racing. Rossi was quietly quick throughout the entire race. After starting fourth, he started the race on the primary tires, electing to run his first stint longer than the leaders to benefit his alternate “red” tire stints later in the race.
This proved critical, as he was able to catch and pass Palou for third while the Spaniard struggled on his alternate tires. Once he assumed third place, he wouldn’t give it up on track, pulling several seconds away from Malukas and Felix Rosenqvist, driver of the No.60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda.
End of an era
Scott Dixon, driver of the No.9 Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) Honda, and Rosenqvist ended their tenures at their respective organizations at the drop of the checkered flag in the Grand Prix of Monterey.
Dixon spent 25 years with CGR, winning six championships for the team and 58 races. While he didn’t go out on the top step of the podium, he made a valiant effort Dixon drove through the field on numerous occasions on an alternate strategy but couldn’t make the four-stop strategy work.
He concluded his historic career at CGR with a 17th-place finish.
As for Rosenqvist, he has been a journeyman driver his whole career. He started his career at Chip Ganassi Racing before moving to Arrow McLaren Racing. After losing his ride, he found himself at MSR, where he found the most success. All of this culminated in a victory in the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 and a ninth-place finish in the driver standings.
Rosenqvist finished the Grand Prix of Monterey fifth, ending his partnership with MSR on a high.
At the end of the season, he is poised to join Dixon at Arrow-McLaren, in which they will partner with Pato O’Ward, driver of the No.5 Chevrolet for 2027.
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey Results:
Scott McLaughlin #3 - (WINNER)
Kyle Kirkwood #27 -1.374s
Alexander Rossi #20 -2.811s
Felix Rosenqvist #60 -5.289s
David Malukas #12 -14.588s
Chrisitan Lundgaard #7 -16.5s
Marcus Armstrong #66 -21.813s
Alex Palou #10 -28.044s
Marcus Ericsson #28 -40.226s
Kyffin Simpson #8 -40.768s
Pato O’Ward #5 -43.021s
Santino Ferrucci #14 -43.747s
Will Power #26 -49.354s
Louis Foster #45 -53.405s
Josef Newgarden #2 -55.103s
Rinus VeeKay #76 -55.73s
Scott Dixon #9 -57.624s
Romain Grosjean #18 -1:00.692s
Graham Rahal #15 -1:04.668s
Caio Collet #4 (R) -1:08.174s
Christian Rasmussen #21 -1:09.127s
Mick Schumacher #47 (R) -1:10.771s
Sting Ray Robb #77 -1 lap down
Nolan Siegel #6 -1 lap down
Dennis Hauger #19 (R) -95 laps down (Incident)
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES will kick off its 2027 season in St. Petersburg, Florida, for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Fans will have to wait until March 7, 2027, for INDYCAR action to return on the streets of St. Petersburg.
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