McLaughlin thought Penske would take him to NASCAR

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Scott McLaughlin says a NASCAR drive was initially on his radar as he believed Team Penske wouldn’t consider him for IndyCar.

The two-time Virgin Australia Supercars Championship winner is currently in line for a drive in the NTT IndyCar Series in the future where he is likely to have great success while Alexander Rossi will likely someday bang his head against the wall in regret for turning down the drive.

Speaking on the Marshall Pruett Podcast, McLaughlin said he believed there was always an expectation that NASCAR would be the next progression in his career.

“The reason I was always going down the NASCAR route was purely because I just thought (Team Penske) would expect (that) of me," said McLaughlin.

“Roger (Penske) and Tim (Cindric) wouldn’t probably consider me in open-wheeler racing with my lack of experience.

“That was probably, for a start, why NASCAR was probably more on my radar. But like I’ve said before, I’ll drive anything."

“The IndyCar schedule looking at it, for me, I feel like it allows a nice lifestyle (compared to NASCAR arduous schedule)," he said.

“Especially being newly married, obviously wanting to have kids one day. Looking at the future, I’m a bit more at home if I did end up full-time or whatever.

“I love playing golf and having a lifestyle away from the track. I think NASCAR was just really full-on looking into it.

“I’ve always personally loved a lot of grip, a lot of power. I love the aerodynamic cars. So when I was able to get that chance at Sebring I loved it straight away.

“I guess the conversation started after Bathurst last year. As a team, we wanted to tick the goals of winning Bathurst and the championship.

“We obviously won the championship in 2018 but hadn’t won Bathurst. When we won it in 2019, it wasn’t long after that before we started talking about the future and what I wanted to do.

“The calendar sort of worked out for earlier in the year for the Indy May race. That was originally our first scheduled stop.

“I was seriously excited. To have the opportunity to go over and do it right and do COTA and then Texas eventually, it’s been a really good transition. Hopefully I can do more."