McLaughlin Claims His Maiden NTT P1 Award

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin scored his first NTT P1 Award for the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix presented by RP Funding. I am a competitive block at the end of the day this is something new to me he said.

McLaughlin set a 59.4842s while Will Power starts the race from second place in the No.12 Verizon 5G Chevrolet with a time of 59.6058s while Colton Herta starts the race from third place with a 59.7104s.

Rinus VeeKay starts the race from fourth place with a time of 59.8102s while Romain Grosjean starts the race from fifth place with a time of 59.8116s while Simon Pagenaud starts his first race for Meyer Shank Racing in sixth with a time of 01:00.2616s.

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 DEX IMAGING CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE: “I love qualifying. You have to put it all on the line. I’m working really well with Ben Bretzman (new race engineer). The DEX Imaging Chevy is phenomenal. Ben is a legend. We said we could do it. I’m really proud. I know Mom and Dad will be watching at home, so this is awesome. I have my in-laws here and I haven’t seen them in two years. I’m super proud for that. Chevy has done a tremendous job giving us driveability. The engine is handling so much better and I’m so confident. I’m so happy… I have a race tomorrow and can’t use too much energy!”
YOU SAID YOU WERE TIRED OF STARTING AT THE BACK OF THE FIELD. HOW DIFFERENT WILL THE PERSPECTIVE BE TOMORROW? “I’m a competitive bloke so I hate starting at the back! At the end of the day, it’s a new thing for me. I’ll be starting from the front and leading a group to the first corner. I’m used to braking with people in front of me so I have to make sure I don’t overshoot it like an idiot! We’ll have fun. I appreciate all the fans coming out. It’s great to see so many fans and I can’t wait for tomorrow. The show is going to be big.”

BEN BRETZMAN, NO. 3 DEX IMAGING CHEVROLET RACE ENGINEER: “It’s been an interesting offseason with a big transition for both of us. We’ve put a lot of work in, a lot of ‘How are we going to do this together and what do we need to learn together?’ I’m super proud of him. The speed has always been there, it’s how do you extract it? So far so good.”
DID YOU THINK A POLE WAS POSSIBLE? “Honestly I wasn’t sure until I saw where we were when we unloaded. When we unloaded, all that work that we did over the offseason really came to fruition. We were quick right off the truck, and then I knew we could do something. I’m pretty excited. A lot of work went into this so I’m really proud of everybody.”