News
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN No. 3 XPEL CHEVROLET
START: 13TH
FINISH: 10TH
POINTS: 11TH (-331)
RACE RUNDOWN: Scott McLaughlin and the No. 3 XPEL Chevrolet team came home with a 10th-place finish in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Team Penske’s all-time leader in pole positions just missed transferring to the second round of qualifying on Saturday and took the green flag from the 13th position. As with his Team Penske teammates, McLaughlin and crew elected to start the race on the softer Firestone tire compound and they stuck to their pre-race strategy through two early caution periods that resulted in McLaughlin racing his way inside the top 10. On a day when the harder Firestone compound was the preferred tire, McLaughlin and crew chose to change to that compound on the team’s third pit stop of the day, losing only a few positions as McLaughlin pushed hard after returning to the track. The seven-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES race winner was able to make his way around teammate Josef Newgarden late in the event to score a top 10 finish.
MCLAUGHLIN’S THOUGHTS: “Not a bad day for XPEL Chevy. I felt like our potential was probably into the top five or top eight, but we still salvaged a top ten. Not everything went our way, but we finished, and it’s nice to get a full race in with the boys. The car was OK. It can be better, but making improvements. Just trying to get a little bit of our mojo back, and we started that this weekend.”
