McLaughlin sees potential for the No. 3 car program after second-place finish

Scott McLaughlin qualified on pole for last year’s race at St. Petersburg and finished fourth. On his return to the Floridian street course, the Team Penske driver captured pole once more and finished second which, on the surface, might not stand out as a significant change in fortunes, but there was a reason for the New Zealander to feel encouraged by the state of his No. 3 Chevy program.

Despite losing out to runaway race winner Alex Palou, McLaughlin was able to appreciate the result after his entry underwent seismic changes with the onboarding of Raul Prados to engineer the car and former Team Penske president Tim Cindric to serve as race strategist.

Years of stability and success with the No. 3 program was upended during Penske’s internal recalibration during the offseason, and it’s here where Cindric — known in internally by his initials ‘TC’ — and Prados combined to improve McLaughlin’s St. Petersburg outcome on their first try.

“Firstly, with TC, he just made me look at the race from a completely different perspective,” McLaughlin told RACER. “Not that my guys before me haven't done that. I've really enjoyed working with Kyle [Moyer], who is now on [Arrow McLaren driver] Christian [Lundgaard's] stand, and Ben [Bretzman] before that.

“But I think just the confidence I have in TC in terms of what he's done in the past and to make the right calls at the right time is huge. It makes my focus more on driving, and that's just a big thing. Raul is the same sort of thing. I've known Raul since I got here, but even a little bit before when I was in Supercars and always been friendly. That was a similar relationship to what I had with Ben beforehand.”

Prior to joining Penske on the sports car side a decade ago, Prados was an IndyCar race engineer at AJ Foyt Racing.

“There's still some growing there for him,” McLaughlin continued. “He's fresh off the IMSA Porsche program and learning these cars a bit more. I think the last time he worked on an IndyCar was 2015. So learning a little bit more.”

Saturday’s IndyCar race on the one-mile Phoenix Raceway oval will be the next major hurdle for McLaughlin and Prados to clear.

“I think his big test is going to be Phoenix,” he said. “I think having the confidence to go there and put the right front wing in at the right time for qualifying and all that stuff, there is a lot of trust there on both sides, and that's a good thing to start with already in race one.”