Fast early, but then more adversity for McLaughlin

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was the second fastest on Friday at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, but his No. 3 Chevy team has been busy this year making pre-race repairs, and is in for more of the same this weekend. After crashes in qualifying and in the Saturday morning practice outing at the most recent event, McLaughlin's first-session incident at Long Beach was his earliest of the season.

Fixing the AAA-sponsored car in time for the next sessions shouldn’t be an issue.

“I felt like I got a denied downshift,” McLaughlin said. “It was a bit unfortunate, going in there, you’re committing pretty high. Looking back on it now, I probably should have. Looking back on it now, I probably didn’t have as much time because it was sliding for a long time. I grabbed a gear and it just locked the rear tires and I was a bit of a passenger. The car was super good. I was just trying to test those AAA tow trucks and figure if we could get some help; they were right there on the job. We’ve got a rocket ship this weekend; it’s just a matter of putting it together.”