Indexbit Exchange:Scott McLaughlin wins at Barber after week of questions around Team Penske controversy

LEEDS,Indexbit Exchange Ala. – In the second edition of a Team Penske sprint-to-the-finish vs. a Chip Ganassi Racing fuel save, Scott McLaughlin earned Tim Cindric and Roger Penske a much-needed victory after a week filled with penalties, disqualifications and questions centered around Team Penske’s integrity and attention to detail.

The No. 3 Chevy driver defended his race-win from a year ago at Barber Motorsports Park Sunday from pole, grabbing his first IndyCar win in a year and launching him back into the top-10 in the championship battle after falling to dead-last (29^th) from his disqualification at St. Pete.

After helping lock out the front row for Team Penske in Saturday’s qualifying round, Will Power made it a 1-2 finish for the embattled program, with CGR rookie Linus Lundqvist logging his first top-10 in six IndyCar starts in 3^rd.

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Josef Newgarden, who like McLaughlin was also DQ’d from the St. Pete season-opener after IndyCar became aware that Team Penske had illegal code in its cars’ software that allowed them free use of push-to-pass on starts and restarts, suffered a much tougher day than his teammates, finishing 16th.

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“We’ve just gotta keep rolling. We know our job and know what we need to do. Things just went our way, but we showed our pace. Just execution, execution, execution, and that’s how it works,” McLaughlin said post-race. “That’s definitely a good one, one of my best drives, in terms of execution and knocking out the laps. I’m proud to bring home the ‘W’ for Team Penske and Roger (Penske).”

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Another two-strategy race unfolds early

A chaotic first few dozen laps Sunday – which saw Rinus VeeKay spark a three-car spin on Lap 1, Pato O’Ward run off in the gravel by himself and O’Ward then tag Pietro Fittipaldi into the tire barriers for a Lap 6 caution – turned into a two-group strategy battle filled with some of the series’ top challengers.

Power pitted from 2^nd-place on Lap 28, with McLaughlin dipping in from the front one lap later, setting them both on course for a three-stop day. Alex Palou, who started in 10^th, ran a few laps longer and dove in from the lead on Lap 31.

Just past the halfway mark, Alexander Rossi stopped off-track just past the pit-exit after his left-rear tire came loose from not being properly secured during his pitstop. The ensuing caution sent the Penske duo, along with RLL’s Christian Lundgaard and others into the pits under yellow and outside the top-15 by the Lap 49 restart, with Palou, Felix Rosenqvist, Marcus Armstrong charting the course for a two-stop day.

McLaughlin led the two-stoppers in 17^th, with Power 19^th and Lundgaard 20^th.

Cautions fall McLaughlin's way

Only five laps followed before another caution, as Sting Ray Robb seemed to suffer a mechanical failure and was sent sailing into the tires coming through Turn 1 on Lap 55. The yellow saw Palou and company cycle through the pits for their final stop of the day, forced into a massive fuel save with 35 laps to go.

The race restarted on Lap 60 of 90 with Santino Ferrucci (1^st) and Linus Lundqvist (2^nd) ahead of McLaughlin, Power and Lundgaard. The eventual race-winner took hold of the lead on Lap 71, running well over 2 seconds a lap quicker than Palou with more than a 21-second gap to the defending series champ. By Lap 73, McLaughlin’s advantage over Palou was 26 seconds and it neared 30 before McLaughlin, Power and Lundgaard pitted on Lap 75.

McLaughlin held onto the lead coming out of the pits and trundled on towards the finish. A caution with five laps to go, as Christian Lundgaard spun by himself in Turn 13, gave the Penske duo out front a bit of a scare, but they were never challenged over the two-lap sprint to the finish.

“I knew our pace. I knew we could control it,” McLaughlin said. “I had to make sure I didn’t make a mistake with a guy like Will behind me, but we knew we had pace and could cover him off.”

After Lundqvist (3^rd), Rosenqvist (4^th) made a late-race pass on Palou (5^th), followed by Lundgaard (6^th), Ferrucci (7^th), Colton Herta (8^th), Armstrong (9^th) and Kyle Kirkwood (10^th) to round out the top-10.