Scott McLaughlin Ends Drought With Dominant Laguna Seca Win
Scott McLaughlin ended a long winless streak and the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season in style, dominating the Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey for his first victory in more than two years.
Pole sitter McLaughlin (photo, above) drove the No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet to victory by 1.3739 seconds over the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda of Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood. The win was the eighth of McLaughlin’s INDYCAR SERIES career and his first since Sept. 1, 2024, in the second race of a doubleheader weekend at the Milwaukee Mile, snapping a 36-race drought.
My little girl (Lucy, born in October 2024) hasn’t seen me win yet, and now she has,” McLaughlin said. “So, Dad’s coming home with a trophy, baby. Let’s go!
“These guys and girls at Team Penske have stood behind me the whole time. Congrats to Alex (Palou) on his fifth championship, but we’re working hard to beat them, and today was a big step in the right direction.”
Alexander Rossi finished third in the No. 20 Java House ECR Chevrolet for his first podium finish since placing third at this event for Arrow McLaren in June 2024.
Felix Rosenqvist placed fourth in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Honda. David Malukas put two Team Penske cars in the top five in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.
Alex Palou punctuated the fifth NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship he clinched last weekend at Milwaukee with a quiet drive to eighth place in the No. 10 DHL Lightning Bolt Honda of Chip Ganassi Racing after winning this race the last two years. But Palou and the CGR team celebrated its record-tying fourth consecutive season title with donuts on the front straightaway by the driver and again in a boisterous post-race Astor Challenge Cup presentation (photo, above).
McLaughlin left absolutely no doubt about his dominance in this race on the 11-turn, 2.238-mile road course. He only trailed during pit stop sequences and ended up leading 87 of 95 laps, erasing all memories of the six podium finishes without a win since his last triumph.
There was only one caution period in the race, for a Lap 1 incident in which Sting Ray Robb’s No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing – Goodheart Chevrolet hit the rear of Dennis Hauger’s No. 19 Ault Block Chain Honda of Dale Coyne Racing in Turn 6, sending Hauger spinning into the tire barrier.
McLaughlin had no problem pulling away from the field on the restart on Lap 4, and his precise driving and Team Penske’s clean, quick work during three pit stops took care of the rest.
“We had to be solid,” McLaughlin said. “That’s what it’s going to take to win a championship. What a great warm-up we had. Bring on 2027.”
Kirkwood, who started sixth, had climbed to second by Lap 20 after Palou pitted to switch to a different tire strategy and shadowed McLaughlin for the rest of the way, pitting at the same time as McLaughlin on all three stops. McLaughlin’s lead was nearly four seconds at the halfway point, but Kirkwood pulled as close as 1.2 seconds on Lap 72 due to running his final stint on the faster but less-durable Firestone Firehawk alternate tire.
But McLaughlin eased away in the closing laps on the more durable Firestone primary tire, as Kirkwood admitted he and the Andretti Global team took a safety-first approach to ensure the driver would finish a career-best second in the standings. Kirkwood ended up 86 points behind champion Palou.
“Second in the championship, and that’s my best road-course finish,” Kirkwood said. “We just played it super clean, super methodical. I wish I could have had a go at Scotty there at the end on the better tires, but we knew who we were fighting, and that was for the championship, mostly. So, we played it safe there. Second place is best of the rest.”
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