Scott McLaughlin had one IndyCar race result taken away this week, but replaced it with an even better one.
The Team Penske driver was disqualified from his second-place finish at the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg along with race-winner Josef Newgarden, because the two were found to have used their push-to-pass feature illegally during the race.
The pair and teammate Will Power, who only had 10 points deducted from his St. Petersburg result — as he didn’t use the feature, but had an out of spec car — wasn’t disqualified, arrived at Barber Motorsports Park for the Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix under a cloud of controversy.
McLaughlin brushed it aside to take pole position during qualifying and Power started alongside him on the front row for the race.
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McLaughlin dominated the race leading 58 of the 90 laps run, and led Power across the line from a final restart with three laps to go.
“We just had to keep rolling,†McLaughlin said, according to the Associated Press.
“We know our job. We know what we need to do. I’m just super proud of our execution.â€
Newgarden started in eighth position, but had a rough time of it and was punted off the track by Marcus Armstrong on lap 33 while in 15th position. He would ultimately finish 16th.
Power’s win moved him into second place in the season standings after three races, just one point behind Colton Herta who has 101.
Full results:
1. (1) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 90, Running
2. (2) Will Power, Chevrolet, 90, Running
3. (19) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 90, Running
4. (5) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 90, Running
5. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 90, Running
6. (3) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 90, Running
7. (17) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 90, Running
8. (15) Colton Herta, Honda, 90, Running
9. (6) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 90, Running
10. (9) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 90, Running
11. (7) Graham Rahal, Honda, 90, Running
12. (11) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 90, Running
13. (22) Jack Harvey, Honda, 90, Running
14. (23) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 90, Running
15. (13) Scott Dixon, Honda, 90, Running
16. (8) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 90, Running
17. (27) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 90, Running
18. (18) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 90, Running
19. (12) Tom Blomqvist, Honda, 90, Running
20. (20) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 90, Running
21. (21) Luca Ghiotto, Honda, 90, Running
22. (24) Theo Pourchaire, Chevrolet, 89, Running
23. (4) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 90, Running
24. (14) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 89, Running
25. (16) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 59, Mechanical
26. (25) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 54, Contact
27. (26) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 41, Contact