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SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN No. 3 XPEL CHEVROLET
START: 25TH
FINISH: 27TH
POINTS: 10TH (-61)
RACE RUNDOWN: Scott McLaughlin and the No. 3 XPEL Chevrolet team endured a difficult outing in Sunday’s Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix, finishing 27th at the Palm Springs-area circuit. The weekend turned south during Saturday’s first round of qualifying when McLaughlin spun his Chevy on his opening lap in the time trials. He was never able to fully recover throughout the session and started Sunday’s race from the 25th position. On the opening lap of the race, McLaughlin was hit by the No. 30 of Devlin DeFrancesco to force another spin but no damage came as a result of the contact. Unfortunately for the team, the Motor Generator Unit (MGU) began to overheat around Lap 15, forcing McLaughlin down pit road on Lap 20 for several laps while the team diagnosed and repaired the issue. After returning to action, McLaughlin was able to show the speed in his Chevrolet-powered machine with respectable lap times before having to retire early with more MGU issues.
MCLAUGHLIN’S THOUGHTS: “Not the day we wanted for the XPEL Chevy. Tough weekend all around, really, but I was very confident going into today that we would have good race pace. I’m confident that we could have moved up through the field like Will (Power) and Josef (Newgarden) were able to do. Unfortunately, the issue we had with our MGU (motor generator unit) caused it to go into critical mode and we had to sit on pit lane for several laps while draining the battery and resetting everything. Very thankful that we got a solid finish to start the year at St. Pete. We’ll just go about climbing back out of this points hole.”
