McLaughlin focusing on championship-level consistency for 2026

Scott McLaughlin’s starry rise in the IndyCar Series stalled last season. It came as a genuine surprise for the New Zealander after completing an epic charge in 2024 where he and the No. 3 Team Penske Chevy crew captured pole position at the Indianapolis 500, earned three victories, and chased eventual champion Alex Palou home with a career-best finish of third in the drivers’ standings.

Poised to vault higher in the championship throughout 2025, McLaughlin took pole to open the year at St. Petersburg and produced three podiums along the way, but was largely disappointed during the campaign which left his No. 3 Chevy an uncharacteristic 10th in the championship.

Add in the midseason turbulence caused by the firings of Team Penske’s three senior leaders after May’s attenuator illegalities, and McLaughlin wants nothing more than to turn the proverbial page and get back to his winning- and title-contending ways. But first, taking an honest assessment of what went right and what went wrong is required to amplify the positives and rectify the shortcomings when the new season goes live in 30 days.

“I started the year probably the best, most consistent start to my season I ever had,” McLaughlin said. “But there was one guy (Palou) that won five races in a row and he was fantastic all season, which was tough, and it nullified everything that you'd moved on. My goal to start last year was start the season strong, see where we're at. I didn't really count on someone winning five or six races in a row to start the year, and I don't think anyone did. It's a testament to Alex, who's a great person, and I'm trying to be better, to be like him, to beat him.

“So then you go through the year, obviously May happens and change has happened with the team. You're going into the busy part of the year where there's guys that haven't been in these (new leadership) roles, and people are looking at, ‘Hey, who do we speak to on this? Who do we speak to on that?’ Travel, all that stuff. So it was a bit of a cluster for a long time there, and when we finally started finding our feet, we saw the team started coming up, but I didn't execute well enough all season.”

Coming off of a 2025 where he was expected to vie for the championship, McLaughlin isn’t calling his shot entering 2026 and proclaiming where he’ll finish after the 17 races are run. But he knows there’s immense potential within himself and the reconfigured No. 3 program that welcomes Raul Prados onto the timing stand as race engineer to get back to business in the lead pack.

“I don't think there's a lack of pace,” he said. “I haven't forgotten how to drive. There's that belief that I can still make this year my year as well. But everyone would come out and say (last year), ‘Hey, you're gonna win the championship.’ I have to win the championship to make this a good year? No, I don't.

“It's the same as last year. I just want to go out there and execute, be fast, be there or thereabouts and see where we end up. And that's how I've really acted the last six, seven years of my career. It’s just execution, and my execution wasn't high enough last year. The team’s wasn't either. We need to be better, and I think we will.”