'Wasted one away': IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin looking to right his wrongs in the Indy 500

Scott McLaughlin is a man on a mission to right his wrongs at the Indy500.

Images of the Team Penske driver from last year's race looked straight out of a Renaissance painting - a portrait of pure desperation and heartbreak.

Crouched away from his bright yellow car, with his head buried in his hands, McLaughlin was unable to look at anyone or anything, completely overcome by the agony of his mistake.

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In 2025, McLaughlin left Indianapolis in tears after crashing on the pace lap, bringing a woeful Indy 500 campaign for his Penske crew to a fittingly tragic end.

Now, speaking exclusively to Wide World of Sports ahead of the 2026 edition, the New Zealander expressed a determination to ensure he won't be bested by history again.

"I wasted one away last year, in some ways," said McLaughlin.

"I'm pretty hungry because at the end of the day, I felt like last year was one ... we were really good and really strong.

"The car was great and fast, but just made a mistake and crashed out before I even got a chance to have a crack.

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"I feel like I haven't raced Indy 500, which realistically I haven't for a couple years.

"So it's a return. The car's been feeling really good. We start in a great spot. There's no reason why we can't contend for a win."

McLaughlin will line up from ninth on the grid - the outside of the third row in the 3x3x3 formation unique to the Indy 500 - for the 110th running of the iconic race.

But for the driver of the No.3 car, starting from ninth feels like fate.

The last Penske driver to win the Indy 500 with a number three on their cockpit was Brazilian Formula 1 legend Emerson Fittipaldi.

"I think actually the last person who won from ninth was Emerson Fittipaldi and he won for Penske back in the day and ... three threes equals nine and it's all looking up, you know what I mean?"

"I feel pretty good about everything. Look, I've got so much support from my team. You know, they've just been amazing throughout this last year and a bit.

"Honestly, it's been a pretty tough slog, but we've had a lot of potential and at the end of the day, that's the best thing for us right now.

"We're not slow. We're fast, it's just a matter of piecing a few of the puzzles together and we'll be there."

And maybe a quick prayer or two up to the racing gods wouldn't hurt.

"Look, you could say I am (superstitious). I believe in some stuff and omens and whatever, but I try not to create bad luck."

"I would say I'm superstitious. I won't go under a ladder or I won't go under stairs ... I try and keep my same routine and whatnot.

"I certainly believe this is a place that picks the winner.

"You can't create it for yourself. You can have the fastest car, but there's some bit of luck that comes into it and you create your own luck.

"And I feel like we've been really good to the gods lately and hopefully it works out."

To mark Team Penske's 60th anniversary, the organisation shipped McLaughlin's 2020 championship-winning Supercar from Australia to the IMS Museum in Indianapolis.

For McLaughlin, introducing his one-year-old daughter, Lisa, to the car that defined his early career was an emotional milestone.

"It's pretty emotional for my wife and I just to see her (Lisa) with that car and see her, being alongside it. It's a big part of the reason why we're here and why we are in a position we are today.

"It's cool to see her next to it and see it and be a part of it, but trying to create new memories now for her and she's American and you want to try and do my best job to win here in America.

"I haven't won as a dad yet. I've been very close. I've been second. I've been third. I've got pole. I haven't won. I'm really itching to win as a dad."

The 2026 season has been "up and down" for Penske, McLaughlin had a huge crash in Barber but then was quickest in the 'Fast Friday' Indy 500 practice.

"It's been a lot more up and down than we wanted it to be. I think we've had really good speed and we've been fast a lot, but we just haven't put it together," he said.

"A little bit me, a little bit of my new engineering group coming together. But, first and foremost, we've got speed, we've got pace. It's just a matter of putting the speed at the right points at the weekend.

"We haven't quite executed that at the moment, but I can't see a better place than Indy to do that and make it happen.

"But if it doesn't, I know that we've built so many blocks here over the month and with my new engineer role and how we're working together, I just see a lot of potential ahead and it makes me feel really good for the future."

The fluctuating form is partly due to a massive off-season shake-up.

His long-time race engineer, Ben Bretzman, who partnered with McLaughlin from 2022 to 2025, was promoted to engineering manager of competition.

In his place steps Raul Prados.

"We've been gelling pretty well. At times - my new engineer, he's Spanish and I'm a New Zealander, (we have a) very different way that we express things.

"That's been an area that we've been trying to work on where my teammates have worked with engineers for a year and more, is something that I probably took for granted, the guy that I worked with before.

"How good we had a relationship in terms of how much he understood me.

"And when I came into working with Raul; I love him, I can see a future with him, but I didn't realise how hard we needed to work together to get to that point.

"So, we really are putting our heads down so hard and nothing would make me more proud to win a race or have a good race for him on Sunday."

McLaughlin's journey is part of a larger exodus of Australian and New Zealand drivers making waves in American motorsport.

He is joined on the IndyCar grid by Aussie veteran Will Power and fellow Kiwis Marcus Armstrong and Scott Dixon, while Shane van Gisbergen continues to tear up the NASCAR circuit.

"I think there's a bit of intrigue obviously from America to see what Supercars is about, but I think vice versa as well.

"I don't know. It's all opportunity. I, first and foremost, I always wanted to be a Supercars driver. That was what I wanted to be.

"I wanted to win a championship. I wanted to win Bathurst, but for me personally at the time, I badly wanted to just challenge myself to 'what's the next thing, what can I achieve outside of Australia, New Zealand?'

"I always wanted to be a Supercars driver first and foremost. And if I had never even come to America, I would have been very happy where I was, but I got this opportunity.

"I grabbed it with both hands and I'll never look back."

Having already conquered the Bathurst 1000, McLaughlin admitted that both of motorsport's crown jewel events are both steeped in tradition and veteran fans.

"Oh, it's awesome. This race has been going on for over 100 years.

"It's 110th running and I've met a fan ... it was the 74th time that he's been at the Indy 500. So it's crazy to think about that.

"The people that have been here for so long. It's such a tradition between families and generations. And it's really, really cool.

"We have a separate weekend purely for qualifying here in America with Indy 500. I feel like at Bathurst, we could do that as well. A lot of it is crammed in four days.

"(In IndyCar) I'm basically trying to make it as good as I can for me, whereas Bathurst is a bit like, 'all right, does my co-driver feel good?'

"There's a lot of similarities to how prestigious the race is. I think from a people attending perspective - this is massive, it's 400,000 people in one spot in a day.

"It's incredible ... you have half that number over three days at Bathurst.

"But both of them had the very same vibes, the same passion, the same people, the same people that love the sport and love the drivers and the brands.

"I'm very lucky that I've won Bathurst before. And it's given me that, I guess that key to realise, 'okay, that's what it feels like to win the biggest race in the country.'

"I would love to do that here in America and feel that feeling again, because the feeling never gets old."