McLaughlin takes first IndyCar pole of 2025

Scott McLaughlin has made a statement at the earliest opportunity in the 2025 IndyCar season at St Petersburg where Aussie Lochie Hughes flew in IndyNXT.

McLaughlin scored his 11th career pole by a comfortable two tenths over Colton Herta with a 59.4624s lap of the street course.

Penske teammate and Aussie Will Power could only manage 13th as Felix Rosenqvist, Marcus Armstrong and Christian Lundgaard rounded out the top five ahead of Scott Dixon.

McLaughlin has strong history at St Pete, getting his first IndyCar win from pole position in 2022.

However, this weekend started in brutal fashion as he suffered a heavy practice crash on Friday.

As a result, McLaughlin spoke highly of his team to help him go from zero to hero and get his 70th Penske pole from Supercars to IndyCar.

“Just super pumped with that,” he said. 

“Yesterday – with our wreck at the end of the session – was not how we wanted to start the weekend, but there is so much trust amongst everyone on this DEX Imaging Chevy.

“The hit that I had yesterday wasn’t as bad as it looked. The theatrics were pretty crazy. 

“Ultimately you hate giving the team extra work, go over the garage hours and whatnot. Anything you can do to repay them.

“No one ever dropped their head, and the vibes have been positive the entire time. 

“Track position in a two-stop race is very important so this was a huge pole position, not to mention my 70th for Team Penske. Very proud of that and very proud of our effort today.

“The car was awesome. Immaculate vibes here for the Thirsty Three’s. Really proud of it. The DEX Imagine Chevy was fast. 

“I put it in the fence there yesterday and I was pretty (mad) at myself. 

“I was glad to come back and deliver when I needed to today, and really proud of the group.”

Whilst McLaughlin will start from pole, he knows repeating his 2022 win will not be easy with tyre degradation set to be a big factor.

“I think it was more extreme than I thought it was going to be,” he said. 

“Usually when we have deg races, we deg on the red tires or soft compound, it’s more so like you can maybe get a second lap in in qualifying. It was interesting to feel that.

“I think tomorrow is going to be interesting because of that. For sure no doubt in my mind a three-stopper. 

“There’s no way anybody takes these tires to 30 laps or whatever it is to do the two-stopper. 

“How long can you make them last? What is that going to look like? Is it going to be five laps? 15 laps? It’s all going to be dependent, at least for us, on what guys do behind us. We’ll kind of pit from there.”

Aussie Power was left to lament a first corner mistake.

“It was pretty good. I just carried too much speed into the first corner of that lap and understood why I had to lift,” he said. 

“It was enough to get me through. Just frustrating because I know we have a good car.

“If you push, you don’t destroy the front. You just don’t have time for another lap. I just pushed wide. I got on the throttle, but I had to back out. 

“That’s more of what happened.”

In his first ever IndyNXT race Hughes has secured a front row start.

The Aussie rookie qualified second for the season opener, being best of the rest behind record-breaking rookie Dennis Hauger.

Hughes’ 1:04.0209 was two tenths shy of pole, but importantly three tenths clear of nearest rival Caio Collet.

The other Aussie in the field Tommy Smith was 16th fastest in the #16.

The opening race of the IndyCar season begins at 04.00 AEDT Monday morning.

IndyCar St petersburg Qualifying results

READ THE LATEST ISSUE OF AUTO ACTION HERE

Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.