Scott McLaughlin Wins in Second Half of Attrition-Filled Milwaukee Doubleheader
Scott McLaughlin had the last laugh in the attrition dominate second half of IndyCar's Labor Day doubleheader. McLaughlin started on the outside of the front row and survived the litany of cautions, mistakes, and bad luck that rung through the rest of the field.
In celebration of his first oval win in the second half of the Iowa doubleheader, McLaughlin told media that he wouldn't call himself an IndyCar driver until he won on an oval, a month and a half later he's now won twice.
"That was one of the most fun races I’ve had in Indycar," McLaughlin told IndyCar on NBC. "It was a blast. It wasn’t quite good at the start, we just tuned her up and it was awesome. A lot better in traffic today, which helped a lot. Credit to Colton [Herta] and all the racers, they had a blast out there racing everyone. The No. 21 car, their pit crew, helped me a lot in some exchanges helping me get into the pit box and stuff."
The second race at the Milwaukee Mile this weekend looked like it was setting up an absolute barnburner at Nashville as Alex Palou's championship lead over Will Power drastically dropped with his stall at the start of the race, but in between the heavy attrition of a wreck-filled 250 miles and Power's 'okay' race, Palou enters Nashville with a 33 points buffer remaining.
McLaughlin held off fellow New Zealand native Scott Dixon, the man that helped him fall in love with IndyCar for a rare oval victory.
His Penske teammate Josef Newgarden was out immediately after a strange aborted green flag on lap five ended with him crashed into the inside wall.
The race was still running under the yellow flag because championship leader Alex Palou stalled before the drop of the green flag. For the opening 28 laps, things looked dire for the Chip Ganassi Racing entry, but after getting back on the lead lap, even with Power leading the team looked to at worst end 3 points outside the lead. When Power started to struggle late, including a solo spin mid-pack on the restart, Palou and the CGR team saw the light as attrition continued to pick off competitors including Pato O'Ward, Nolan Seigel, and David Malukas.
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