IndyCar: McLaughlin outduels Grosjean to win in Alabama

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Scott McLaughlin and the No. 3 Good Ranchers Chevrolet team scored their first win of the season in Sunday afternoon’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park.

It is the fourth career NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory for McLaughlin, and his 52nd overall win with Team Penske.

In his first race in the Good Ranchers livery, the New Zealand ace showed speed throughout the weekend, including a fourth-place qualifying position. Like his teammates, McLaughlin and crew opted for a three pit stop strategy, electing to use his swift Chevy to run hard instead of working fuel mileage.

He and Josef Newgarden cycled to the front of the field after the first round of pit stops, with McLaughlin taking his first lead on Lap 37. He nearly assumed the lead again following the final round of pit stops as strong work by the PPG crew allowed their driver to beat the No. 28 of Romain Grosjean to the blend line.

After Grosjean made his way around before the completion of the lap to drop McLaughlin to second, the eventual race winner knew he was in a much better situation with his push-to-pass reservoir while Grosjean’s was depleted. After biding his time, he took the lead for the final time on Lap 72 and drove away to the victory.

Grosjean was forced to save fuel and could not hold off McLaughlin who won by 1.78-seconds after 90 laps before the biggest crowd in 10 years on a Chamber of Commerce weather day.

To make matter worse for Grosjean, he had another Team Penske Chevy driven by Will Power charging up from behind over the last ten laps.

Grosjean judged it just right and hung on for 2nd.

McLaughlin’s win was the 7th win for Team Penske at Barber – a dominating performance with their superior shocks on this undulating track. McLaughlin drove to his fourth career victory in the No. 3 Good Ranchers Team Penske Chevrolet.

Scott McLaughlin celebrates – Children_s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix – By_ Karl Zemlin

McLaughlin, from New Zealand, is the fourth different winner this season in as many races.

“I call it a ‘happy driver strategy,’” McLaughlin said speaking about the 3-stop strategy. “I was a lot happier doing that. We went past Grosjean there on a little bit of strategy, and I feel really good about it.”

The compelling duel for the lead between the two was fierce but stayed clean throughout, unlike the season opener last month in St. Petersburg when they both hit the tire barrier after contact with each other while racing for the lead.

“We’re racers; you just get on with it,” McLaughlin said. “We talked it out man to man (after St. Petersburg), and as far as I’m concerned and he’s concerned, we race hard and fair and press on. No hard feelings between the two of us.”

“It hurts,” said Grosjean, who led a race-high 57 laps. “The three-stop never wins at Barber, but today the pits stayed open. That gave McLaughlin and Power the edge on the three-stop. Look at the two-stop (cars) behind us – 20 seconds behind us. We had an incredible car, drove really well, gave it 100 percent, but we just got unlucky with that yellow.

“Congrats to Scott. He deserved that win.”

Last year’s race winner, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, came home 4th with Alex Palou all over his rear wing in 5th and RLL’s Christian Lundgaard in 6th.

Race Results

Pos	No	Name	Laps	Behind	Gap	Pits	Led	ST	Engine	Points	Team
1	3	Scott McLaughlin	90	0.000s	0.000s	3	24	4	Chevy	119	Team Penske
2	28	Romain Grosjean	90	1.7854	1.7854	2	57	1	Honda	115	Andretti Autosport
3	12	Will Power	90	3.2699	1.4845	3	3	11	Chevy	104	Team Penske
4	5	Pato O’Ward	90	20.5745	17.3046	2	0	3	Chevy	127	Arrow McLaren
5	10	Alex Palou	90	20.9762	0.4017	2	0	2	Honda	121	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	45	Christian Lundgaard	90	23.5319	2.5557	2	0	6	Honda	77	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
7	9	Scott Dixon	90	24.2769	0.7450	2	0	5	Honda	98	Chip Ganassi Racing
8	7	Alexander Rossi	90	25.0582	0.7813	3	0	10	Chevy	72	Arrow McLaren
9	6	Felix Rosenqvist	90	25.5107	0.4525	3	0	8	Chevy	66	Arrow McLaren
10	8	Marcus Ericsson	90	26.0190	0.5083	2	0	13	Honda	130	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	11	Marcus Armstrong	90	28.5527	2.5337	2	0	26	Honda	62	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	27	Kyle Kirkwood	90	36.3667	7.8140	2	0	12	Honda	92	Andretti Autosport
13	77	Callum Ilott	90	42.4441	6.0774	3	0	15	Chevy	80	Juncos Hollinger Racing
14	26	Colton Herta	90	43.7781	1.3340	2	0	14	Honda	85	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
15	2	Josef Newgarden	90	45.7346	1.9565	3	6	7	Chevy	105	Team Penske
16	21	Rinus VeeKay	90	55.1118	9.3772	2	0	9	Chevy	47	Ed Carpenter Racing
17	15	Graham Rahal	90	56.4422	1.3304	3	0	19	Honda	65	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
18	60	Simon Pagenaud	90	56.7500	0.3078	2	0	16	Honda	45	Meyer Shank Racing
19	18	David Malukas	90	57.7650	1.0150	3	0	17	Honda	74	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
20	14	Santino Ferrucci	90	58.5106	0.7456	3	0	27	Chevy	44	AJ Foyt Enterprises
21	06	Helio Castroneves	90	60.0847	1.5741	2	0	21	Honda	45	Meyer Shank Racing
22	55	Benjamin Pedersen	90	61.3063	1.2216	3	0	25	Chevy	34	AJ Foyt Enterprises
23	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	90	63.1924	1.8861	2	0	18	Honda	33	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
24	30	Jack Harvey	90	64.5393	1.3469	2	0	24	Honda	43	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
25	20	Conor Daly	90	65.6055	1.0662	3	0	20	Chevy	38	Ed Carpenter Racing
26	78	Agustin Canapino	90	66.1483	0.5428	3	0	22	Chevy	47	Juncos Holling Racing
27	51	Sting Ray Robb	36	Mechanical	2.1866	2	0	23	Honda	37	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 115.019 mph
Time of Race: 1:47:58.9401
Margin of victory: 1.7854 seconds
Cautions: 1 for 3 laps
Lead changes: 7 among 4 drivers

Lap Leaders:
Grosjean, Romain 1 – 30
Newgarden, Josef 31 – 36
McLaughlin, Scott 37 – 38
Grosjean, Romain 39 – 59
McLaughlin, Scott 60 – 62
Power, Will 63 – 65
Grosjean, Romain 66 – 71
McLaughlin, Scott 72 – 90