Scott McLaughlin took his cooldown lap at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. His race strategist, Tim Cindric, told him to do a burnout. He proceeded to the frontstretch and did just that, alongside five-time series champion, Alex Palou.
“It’s been terrible, right? I’ve been waiting six years to do that,” he said. “My initial one I wanted to park it against the fence and do it. I lost it in the smoke. I was too close to the wall when the smoke cleared.”
Driving backwards down pit lane, his car stalled out momentarily, but he re-fired it and drove to victory lane. As Palou climbed out to officially celebrate his championship, McLaughlin took off his helmet, which stuck to his HANS device. He stood up and hopped into the arms of his pit crew.
The driver of the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet started from pole position and led a race high 87 of 95 laps to win the Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Which snapped a 35-race winless streak, dating back to the 2024 Milwaukee Mile 250 Race 2.
“A culmination of some hard work,” McLaughlin said. “I think the whole team, all three cars, just been working on basically I think from the Mid-Ohio test for us, at least on my car, we found a bit of a direction.
“Always felt, yeah, Raul was my guy. We’ve been having that good energy, that feeling that we could do this, but it was just about putting the parts together.
“Today was fantastic. We’ve had poles. Haven’t quite completed the races. You could see that it was there. Really proud to get our first win together on a road course where the last couple years we probably struggled at the most.
“Yeah, what a great way to end the season. We have a lot of hard work to do over the off-season to come back stronger, combat against the 10. I think J.D. would agree, it’s just a good finish to the season, gets everyone excited.”
It’s his eighth career victory in 103 NTT IndyCar Series starts and first since the 2024 Milwaukee Mile 250 Race 2.
Kyle Kirkwood, as his car nearly rolled away from him on pit lane, post-race, brought his No. 27 Andretti Global Honda to a runner-up finish, and clinched a runner-up finish in points.
“Yeah, we played it a little bit safer than I might have hoped for the last race of the season, but we had to for the championship,” Kirkwood said. “We made all the decisions based on that.
“Probably could have had a go at Scottie at the end on the first few laps on reds. The number one goal was to make the tires last. That’s what we did. Came home with a second, which is something to be proud of.”
Alexander Rossi earned his first podium of the season, and first with Ed Carpenter Racing, with a third-place finish in his No. 20 ECR Chevrolet.
“It’s no secret that this has been a pretty terrible year for myself and the whole ECR team with the litany of issue, some out of our control, some in our control,” Rossi said.
“Ultimately road courses have been something that have been a pretty big challenge for us in the second half of this year. Really ever since the Indy GP, there’s been a huge amount of emphasis and effort behind the scenes to kind of dig out of that hole. It’s very difficult to do in this championship.
“Just really proud of the whole organization and everyone involved for kind of staying true to the course and fighting through a lot of adversity.
“This is a great result to kind of reward that effort, just rebuild the confidence in everyone that we’re capable of doing this. It’s a good boost going into what’s going to be a long off-season, but an important one, to make sure we execute a lot better and clean up a lot of our issues that we can control in 2027.”
Felix Rosenqvist and David Malukas rounded out the top-five.
Christian Lundgaard, Marcus Armstrong, Palou, Ericsson and Kyffin Simpson rounded out the top-10.
Scott McLaughlin erases win drought with dominant drive at Laguna Seca
Race summary
McLaughlin led the field to green at 3:13 p.m. ET. Climbing up the Rahal Straight, Sting Ray Robb hit Dennis Hauger and spun him into the outside tire barrier. Which brought out a caution on the first lap. For this, IndyCar handed Robb a 10-second stop and hold penalty.
Back to green on Lap 5, the field settled into a green flag rhythm. McLaughlin, on a new set of Firestone reds (soft tire) pulled out to a 1.5 second lead over Palou, on used reds, by Lap 10. Scott Dixon kicked off a cycle of green flag stops on Lap 10. McLaughlin pitted from the lead on Lap 20. Rosenqvist pitted from the lead on Lap 21. Rossi pitted from the lead on Lap 25 and McLaughlin cycled back to the front.
Dixon again kicked off another cycle of green flag stops on Lap 27. McLaughlin pitted from the lead on Lap 44. Rosenqvist pitted from the lead on Lap 45. Armstrong pitted from the lead on Lap 47 and McLaughlin cycled back to the lead.
With 27 laps to go, Kyle Kirkwood in second ate into the two-second gap to race leader, McLaughlin. With 26 to go, however, lap traffic cost him two seconds and he pitted with McLaughlin that lap. He cycled out under two seconds behind McLaughlin.
With 22 to go, McLaughlin led Kirkwood by 1.7 seconds. With 21 to go, the gap grew to 1.8 seconds. With 20 to go, it shrank to 1.5 seconds. With 19 to go, it fell to 1.4 seconds. With 18 to go, it grew to 1.6 seconds. With 17 to go, it fell to 1.3 seconds. With 16 to go, it ballooned to 1.4 seconds. With 15 to go, it grew to 1.5 seconds. With 14 to go, it swelled up to 1.7 seconds. The gap hung around that range with each passing lap, as McLaughlin drove his car to victory.
Scott McLaughlin erases win drought with dominant drive at Laguna Seca
What else happened
Josef Newgarden locked up in Turn 2 and made contact with Will Power on his outside, on Lap 23.
Going for a pass on Santino Ferrucci, Power locked up and ran wide in Turn 2 on Lap 53.
With 27 laps to go, Nolan Siegel ran wide in Turn 7 and into the dirt, but kept his car out of the tire barrier and returned to the track.
Scott McLaughlin erases win drought with dominant drive at Laguna Seca
Nuts and bolts
The race lasted one hour, 59 minutes and 29 seconds, at an average speed of 106.756 mph. There were six lead changes among four different drivers and one caution for three laps.
Palou finished the season with an 86-point lead over Kirkwood.
Despite a last-place finish, Hauger took home Rookie of the Year honors for the 2026 season.
Dixon, Power and Christian Rasmussen, who all won a race in 2025, failed to win a race in 2026. For Dixon, that snapped a streak of 21 consecutive seasons with at least one race win. For Power, 2026 is his second winless season in the last four years.
That’s all for the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season. It returns to action March 7, 2027, on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.
