SCOTTY’S INDYCAR HOPES FADE

Scott McLaughlin’s IndyCar hope fade – Photo: LAT

Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin’s IndyCar racing debut has almost certainly been derailed by the coronavirus crisis.

By MARK FOGARTY

According to Team Penske chief Tim Cindric, travel restrictions between the USA and Australia won’t make it possible.

The tough economic climate caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is another factor against a fourth IndyCar Series entry for McLaughlin.

Cindric also revealed that McLaughlin was due to take part in an open IndyCar test at the Richmond International Raceway to prepare him for oval racing.

He was due to make his IndyCar debut at the Indianapolis Grand Prix road race early last month before the season was suspended due to the coronavirus shutdown.

The IndyCar Series will resume this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

While Team Penske still wants to run McLaughlin, Cindric admitted that scheduling and quarantine issues had all but ruled it out this year, emphasising that the Brisbane-based Kiwi’s priority was defending his Supercars crown.

“There’s certainly an appetite,” he said. “Whether that’s reality or not is yet to be seen. Currently with the schedule that he has and the quarantine rules that exist within travel at the moment going to and from Australia, if those stay in place the way that they are relative to the schedule, I just don’t see that it’s feasible.

“It’s just not possible to be able to clear quarantine and actually have him continue with the Supercars schedule and the schedule that we have. Until some of that is lifted, I really don’t see him having an opportunity to be here, and obviously, from an economic standpoint, I think everybody is challenged on that front.

“I think for sure there’s a huge appetite, and he understands the reasons why we need to be patience on both ends, but right now he’s focused on the Supercars series until really things change.”

Cindric divulged that following McLaughlin’s standout tests at Sebring and Circuit Of The America’s, his unscheduled oval trial at Texas was to make him eligible for an official test at Richmond.

“He was actually scheduled to try and run the Richmond open test and the reason for the Texas test was that they weren’t going to allow him to run the Richmond open test with the other competitors unless he had run on an oval,” Cindric said. “So the background to why we actually went to Texas was it was the only oval that we could run that we could actually get him cleared to do the Richmond open test.”

It’s clear that pre-coronavirus, Team Penske was planning to run McLaughlin in at least one oval race later in the year.

His appearances would have been preparatory to a full-time switch to IndyCar in 2021.

The revised Supercars and IndyCar calendars mean, under the current restrictions, McLaughlin could not travel to the USA to race and return in time to compete here because of the 14-day quarantine.

Longer-term, whether McLaughlin gets another chance to race in IndyCar next year will depend on Team Penske having the budget to run him.

The Penske organisation has laid off staff across its operations in the USA, Europe and Australasia, including DJR Team Penske.

AUTO ACTION understands DJRTP made five employees redundant earlier this week on orders from America.

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