INDIANAPOLIS — The man in the yellow firesuit crouched by his car, unable to look at anyone or anything. He covered his face with both hands, overcome by the agony of his own unthinkable mistake.
Maybe if he didn’t look, it would turn out to be just a nightmare. Either way, the sight of Scott McLaughlin’s wrecked race car was too difficult to bear.
Moments earlier, during the final pace laps for the 2025 Indianapolis 500, the Team Penske driver weaved his car back and forth to warm up his tires — just like every other driver in the field.
But suddenly, as McLaughlin approached Turn 1 on the warm-up lap, his car snapped around without warning. He lost control, careened toward the inside wall and shockingly slammed into it, destroying his car before the race even began.
“I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy,” McLaughlin told The Athletic. “It was absolutely the worst moment of my life.”
Scott McLaughlin’s mangled car spins in the grass after his crash at last year’s Indianapolis 500. “The hardest thing to look back on is I felt I wasted a 500,” he says. (Marc Lebryk / Imagn Images)
McLaughlin had been set to start 10th in the Indy 500, this after leading 66 laps and finishing sixth the year before. He was closer to being a contender, closer to the sort of glory that tempted him to leave behind a wildly successful career racing in Australia’s Supercars series and start over in the American-based IndyCar.
And then, after months of buildup, days of practice, hours of interviews and promotion and sponsor appearances, McLaughlin’s car crashed before he even made a single lap — this with more than seven million people watching on TV and another 350,000 in person.
“To this day, I still have no idea what happened,” McLaughlin said. “I felt like I was just warming up my tires. It was a little aggressive on the tire warm-up, but the way it just went like that (snaps his fingers), it was tough.”
There was no lapse in concentration when the incident occurred. McLaughlin felt good and was “laser-focused” in preparing to start the race. It showed him that “even when things feel great, it can go bad.”
Afterward, he received texts from around the world — including fellow Indy 500 drivers who told him they nearly did the same thing. It was an unusually chilly day, and there had just been a delay due to persistent drizzle before the cars hit the track.
But no one else spun. McLaughlin did, and he was suddenly overcome with a level of disbelief and pain he never imagined.
Scott McLaughlin qualified ninth for this year’s Indy 500. He finished a career-best sixth in 2024. (Kristin Enzor / For IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
“The fact there was seven and a half million people watching that whole thing is what made it so hard,” he said. “It was embarrassing, but there was also shock in there as well.
“As much as I just wanted to roll into a ball and cry, I was trying to think about the brands who are on my suit, the person I drive for, the guys who are hurting back in the pits. …”
He had another thought as well: Someday, his then-infant daughter Lucy would see the images of how he handled the aftermath. So McLaughlin thought of what his dad taught him as a young go-kart racer: Never show too much emotion.
“If you’re going to cry, you go into the trailer and you do it alone, because you need to be strong for your team,” McLaughlin said. “That was the closest I got to not being strong for my team.”
Ryan Blaney, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion who is both a teammate and close friend of McLaughlin’s, said he was floored by how quickly the New Zealand native was able to begin moving past the incident.
“The worst moment you could possibly have is wrecking before the 500,” Blaney said, “and he was bummed for a day and got over it. He moved on and learned from it and came back even stronger. You’ve got to respect that.”
When Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri crashed on the warm-up lap of this year’s Australian Grand Prix, his home race, McLaughlin texted his fellow driver from Down Under.
The message from McLaughlin: If anyone knows how that feels, it’s me.
“There’s something to be said about learning from the negatives in your life,” he said. “Last year for me was a massive negative — and not just the 500, but the whole year.”
McLaughlin said he let races slip away while leading. He got unnecessary penalties. The team made mistakes at times, too. And though the 32-year-old was driving what he felt was “probably the best I ever have in my career,” it just didn’t go to plan.
“Even when everything’s perfect, sometimes it doesn’t go your way, but you can’t move your mind off the process,” he said. “I’ve just really attached myself to executing and knowing that what I’m doing is correct. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Just ride the wave.”
If McLaughlin thinks he’s a better driver than he’s ever been, that’s saying a lot. Before moving to the United States, McLaughlin was one of the top Supercars drivers — an elite competitor who won three championships and 56 races.
So why does he think he’s better now, when he’s still improving in a completely new type of vehicle compared to what he used to do?
“Because the level was raised in each category I’ve been with,” he said. “When you look back at Supercars, it was myself, Jamie Whincup and Shane (van Gisbergen, who is now a NASCAR driver).
“Between the three of us, one would get better, and then the others would have to step up. It was this constant pyramid. And in IndyCar, it’s just like that.”
McLaughlin has twice finished third in the IndyCar standings and has won seven races in six-plus seasons since leaving Australia. The IndyCar he drives now is an open-wheel car with completely different handling characteristics than his touring-style Supercar, meaning he faced a steep learning curve when arriving in the U.S.
“Scott has always impressed me,” Blaney said. “He came from being the best in Supercars, took a chance and came over to IndyCar — which is a complete 180 — and learned a completely new thing.
“It’s been really cool to see his talent level, and then as a person, he’s one of the most genuine human beings ever.”
Now McLaughlin is back at Indy with a chance to not only redeem last year’s mishap, but perhaps get his face on the iconic Borg-Warner Trophy. McLaughlin qualified ninth for this year’s race and believes that if he can be among the top three drivers at the final pit stop, he’ll have a good chance to win.
“There’s going to be a point at the start of the race where I’m going to be holding the wheel like, ‘Don’t f— this up,’ ” he said. “But look, I’m just human. The hardest thing to look back on is I felt I wasted a 500.
“It makes me realize how important this race is to me and the 33 people who start it, and I’m privileged to be in it. If anything, it will lock me in a little more.”