The Latest Breaking News from McLaughlin

The 30-year-old Kiwi will lead the 33-car field to the green flag for a three-wide rolling start across 11 rows for the 200-lap, 500-mile race.

McLaughlin set a memorable record-setting four-lap average of 234.220mph having set off as the last of the Fast Six, scoring Penske’s 19th Indy 500 pole.

The New Zealander was the last of the drivers in the Fast Six to go out and delivered an ominous opening lap of 234.526mph before going on to grab a four-lap average of 234.220mph to take the top spot from team-mate Will Power.

After starting on pole in the No. 3 Chevrolet, McLaughlin made the best of a three-stop strategy to lead a race-high 58 of 90 laps around the 2.3-mile, 17-turn road course, beating Power, who underwent an engine change after the morning warm-up, by 1.3194s.

The defending race winner, McLaughlin captured pole with a sensational run of 1m05.9490s around the 2.3-mile, 17-turn natural terrain road course, just 0.097s ahead of team-mate Power.

McLaughlin set an early benchmark in the Fast Six pole shootout on alternates at 1m06.329s and ran a second lap on this set – but made a tiny error at Turn 5 – before switching to his second set.

McLaughlin finished third in St. Petersburg and team-mate Josef Newgarden took the win, but both drivers were stripped of their results for illegally being able to use push-to-pass on the restarts.

The 30-year-old New Zealander started ninth for the 100-lap contest that opened the 2024 season for the IndyCar Series. However, it didn’t take long for the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet to quickly move forward.

Femke Bol's relentless pursuit of greatness in the 400m hurdles and flat races against Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.

Senior VP of local news Sean McLaughlin leaving

The New Zealander took another step toward growing into a regular threat in 2023 after a career-best third in the IndyCar title race. Among the top performances of his season was a thrilling battle versus Romain Grosjean at Barber Motorsports Park, where McLaughlin surged late to victory.