Chevrolet's 250th IndyCar pole clinched by McLaughlin

Team Chevy had boxes of hats made for the race where one of its drivers captured its 250th IndyCar pole position.

Thanks to Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and the No. 3 Chevy crew, the New Zealander gave the Bowtie the reason it was looking for to rip open the cardboard containers and hand out the celebratory hats on Saturday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

The journey started with the late Jim Hurtubise in 1963 using Chevy Corvette power at the dirt Langhorne Speedway with “Herk” and hit the huge 250 mark with “SMAC,” who also earned No. 249 with his pole for Race 2 last weekend in Milwaukee.

“Proud for Chevrolet. That's fantastic,” McLaughlin said. “To be the guy that's won 249 and 250 as well. We've had some good times together, for sure. Here's to many more.”

The New Zealander and new race engineer Raul Prados continue to reach new levels in their first season together.

“Really, really happy for Raul, to be honest,” McLaughlin added. “This is his pole. He's a great friend of mine. Had an up-and-down season just like I have the last few. Just really cool to see him happy and jovial.

“My wife calls him my second wife. We text all the time (smiling). We're always talking and thinking about the car and the race car. We're talking about the 500 today. It's great to have a guy like that. [Former race engineer] Ben [Bretzman] was like that for me, but he was very engineering, where Raul is probably a little bit more, like, driver. Helps me with a little bit driving. Why can't you do that? What do I need to do with the car to make you do that?

“He calls me out if I'm slow here, whatever. That's a good thing. Not that Ben didn't do it, but just a little bit different way we do it. I've learned a lot about the race car this year, what different parts do. I think the guy next to me before [second-place qualifier Alex Palou] is where he excels. Raul has known him since he was like four years old. I have a bit of a book in terms of how good he is. It's been nice to learn off that a bit because everyone needs to race to his level.”