Roger Penske as McLaughlin Returns After Indy 500 Pace-Lap Crash
Roger Penske’s Scott McLaughlin returned to the Indianapolis 500 a year after a pace-lap crash ended his race before it started. The Team Penske driver called it “the worst moment of my life,” after a loss that unfolded before the green flag and in front of more than seven million TV viewers.
McLaughlin’s Turn 1 crash
McLaughlin was approaching Turn 1 on the warm-up lap when his car snapped around and careened into the inside wall. He had been set to start 10th, and the failure came after he had spent months building toward the race, with days of practice, hours of interviews and sponsor appearances behind him.
The crash happened during the final pace laps of last year’s Indianapolis 500, before the field had even taken the first green. McLaughlin said, “I felt like I was just warming up my tires.”
The scale of the fallout
What made the moment harder was the size of the audience. McLaughlin said, “The fact there was seven and a half million people watching that whole thing is what made it so hard,” while about 350,000 people were in attendance in person.
He also said, “It was embarrassing, but there was also shock in there as well.” After the hit, he received texts from around the world. The crash came after he had already shown front-running speed the year before, leading 66 laps and finishing sixth in the Indianapolis 500.
Blaney saw the reset
Ryan Blaney, a teammate and close friend, said he was floored by how quickly McLaughlin moved past the incident. McLaughlin said, “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 also recalled his father’s advice: “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.” For McLaughlin, the return to the 2025 Indianapolis 500 was about driving back into the same event where the crash had happened and trying to turn that opening-lap wreck into a cleaner run at Indianapolis.
