NTT INDYCAR SERIES: BIG MACHINE MUSIC CITY GRAND PRIX

August 7, 2022

Scott McLaughlin

Alex Palou

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Driver finished third today, Alex Palou in the NTT DATA Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing. Led 31 of the 80 laps. Fifth podium of the season, 14th of his career. Tell us about the restart there at the end, you were able to make up another spot, and with the race in general today?

ALEX PALOU: Yeah, it was nice to be at the start. I think it was quite good that we started at the front. We had some good pace. Got a bit lucky on the first yellow there. That called me into P1. Scott, the No. 3, was a bit faster than us, and then we got a bit unlucky on the second yellow.

Yeah, I lost a position with Scott McLaughlin on the restart. I couldn't really put temp into the turns like he did. He did an awesome job. I had to get back to the podium, so that was the only chance we got, and, yeah, glad it worked out.

Q. Alex, it looked pretty physical out there, like you guys weren't afraid to throw elbows. It was like a pick-up basketball game. How physical was it from inside the cockpit?

ALEX PALOU: It was quite physical. It wasn't as warm as yesterday probably, which was good for us, but that was still lucky enough to wear a cool suit, and I was quite okay.

It's a physical track. All the street courses I think it's the most physical. We don't get that much airflow in the car, and you are always on the limit. Yeah, it was fun. Oh, you mean like -- oh, elbows out. Yeah, sorry. I didn't understand.

Yeah, it was -- I mean, it's a track that you don't really get much opportunity, so you have to go for it. It's not like you can wait for an amazing opportunity to pass clean like on a road course.

Yeah, you had to go for it. Where I was racing, I thought it was a bit clean. I know on the back it got a bit nasty there, but, yeah, glad it worked out for me.

Q. Colton was in here earlier talking about what it felt like having the -- all the restarts go to the back half of the bridge coming back towards the stadium. Felt like things got really strung out at times and led to some pretty crazy (indiscernible) into turn nine. What was your take on how that change affected today's race and whether you would like to see that going forward?

ALEX PALOU: It's tough to say for me because all the race starts I've done was from the top four. For me it's easy to say it was much better, but I bet that running at the back you would get super quick there.

I don't really know. I thought it was a lot better than last year going into turn 11 because it was super tight, it was super slow, and everybody would just have that chance to go inside.

I don't know what is the best compromise, but running up front I thought it was quite okay.

Q. Did you feel like after that first pit stop you lucked out? I think one lap before we had that caution there for Helio. Did you feel like at that point you leapt into a big potential race-winning move there? Obviously things didn't came out that way, but once we get that caution, you just come out. Tell us what you are thinking there.

ALEX PALOU: Yes and no. I knew it was not going to be the only caution or the last caution that we were going to have. I knew that we were in a good position, obviously, but I knew it was a lot of drama going after, and we had that.

Yeah, I think Nashville is kind of like the Indy 500 where there are so many things happening, and you just need to survive and have a good car and a car in one piece at the end, so, yeah.

Q. I think it was eight cautions today. We had nine last year. Is this -- I mean, all in all with the excitement and the unpredictability, do you feel like this is a good race for this series? Is there any way to keep the excitement and still have, I don't know, fewer cautions when you kind of think about how this race has played out?

ALEX PALOU: I think it's a bit unfair if I say that being on the podium because I'm super happy. I'm happy with the race. Obviously, there was a lot of cautions and the red flag, and it's not ideal, but I don't know from a fan standpoint.

As long as they had fun watching it, it's one of those things that I think the atmosphere here in Nashville and the race event itself, it's amazing. So as long as the fans are happy, I think it's good if we continue here.

Q. It's a challenging track, obviously. If the developers came to you and said what changes do you want made, what would they be?

ALEX PALOU: I think just a bit wider corners so they are a little bit safer if you make a move. I mean safer that you have a little bit more room.

Also, that the speeds are higher so you don't have that tendency to just dive in because I think there are so many corners that it's so easy to just dive in because they are so slow, the driver in front has to slow down the car so much, and you need to leave the gap on the inside.

If there are some drivers that just go for it, you cannot do anything. You cannot steer at that point. Yeah, I just think we need a bit wider turns. That's it.

It's a street course, so every time you go on a street course, you know it's going to be a dramatic race.

Q. You're 33 points down with three races to go. At this point of the season last year with three races to go, we're going into three races. You were down 10. How much different are you going to push through compared to last year when you ended up winning the title?

ALEX PALOU: I think maybe four races to go we were, like, this amount of points back to Pato. We just need to win, to be honest. It's okay to finish third and fourth and fifth and stuff like that and be okay, but we need to win.

Probably not the next race because, yeah, it's not my best, but I'll need to win the last two races to get a chance. We'll do the best. We'll prepare the best we can.

Yeah, I think the last two races are probably our best opportunity for the 10 car.

Q. You are still mathematically in it, but so are two of your teammates. I know Chip came and talked to you. Do you think that you can fairly have a shot at the title with your two teammates considering the situation?

ALEX PALOU: (Laughing) Yes. 100%. Yeah. I think there's a lot going on, but at the end of the day, it's -- Chip would be super happy if we win the championship. He wants one of his cars to win the championship. We cannot all three win, but he wants one car to win. I don't think I'm getting less stuff or not so much, I don't know, attention than others. Otherwise, I would say it, to be honest. Yeah, I think we have a fair shot for sure.

Q. I don't know if you have had any sort of actual one-on-one conversation with Chip since July 12th. I know we saw on TV that you guys shared what looked like at least a nice moment there on TV after you finished on the podium. What was that like, and what did it mean to have him come up to you and congratulate you?

ALEX PALOU: Yeah, we didn't really have a chat one-to-one since then, and, yeah, I mean, it's good, right? I mean, we just finished on the podium. It was a good day. It was a good day for the team overall as well with Scott finishing P1. It was nice. I have no issues at all.

Q. (Off microphone)

ALEX PALOU: I think he did a great job, and one of the things he said probably before the race during the meeting was "Don't ever give up," to all of us. I think because we learned that with Marcus last year.

I think it's kind of the same with Scott this year and also for us. Like, we were P4 one lap or two laps to go, and we made it to P3. Yeah, that was a part of good job. It was -- yeah, don't ever give up.

Q. I know you are one of the two that had mentioned you are just 33 points back, but have four guys in front of you. Despite not having a win yet this year, are you surprised that you are still this close?

ALEX PALOU: I think we started the year great. We did a lot of mistakes, and we had a bit of unlucky time at some races, which cost us a lot of points, but everybody has some unlucky races.

Yeah, I think -- I'm not surprised that we are there because we've been doing some great results, but I know I need to win a race. I know it's coming. I have faith. I know that the work we're doing is good, and some races that are coming are good for us. We won Portland last year. Yeah, I have faith that we're going to win one race this year.

THE MODERATOR: Joined also by the driver of the DEX Imaging team, Penske Chevrolet, Scott McLaughlin, who came home second for his fifth podium of the season. Sixth of his career, 22 laps. We checked. You're now 58 points out of the championship. I know you were looking earlier. About ten laps to go, I think you were sitting fifth. You just methodically made your way up through the restarts and whatnot. How big was your day today?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: It was up and down, Dave. We obviously led. We had a fast car. I felt like we were just sort of controlling the race there at the start. I hadn't even touched my push-to-pass or anything like that. The feel same feel, things were good.

As we all know, INDYCAR, anything can happen. Alex pitted, and then we had the yellow. He jumped out in front. I was chasing him down. We had a good battle at the front, pulling away from everyone in that second stint.

But early on in the race I knew I had a car that could pass. I was passing a lot of cars. Especially on restarts. I felt really strong on the brakes, which was a really good thing around here to be confident with and pass people.

Then we had a bad pit stop, unfortunately. We had a blip on the radar there. Very proud of the boys all day. They were fantastic. We had one costly pit stop that put me back to 16th, and then --

ALEX PALOU: 16th?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Yeah, man. You should have seen this restart.

THE MODERATOR: What were you going into it? What position were you?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I was right behind Alex. We probably would have popped out wherever he popped out. Our cars were pretty close.

We popped out 16th, and, yeah, I was just pissed off, so I just dropped the hammer. I felt like the seas parted, man, on the restart, and I passed all these cars. Jeez, I was quickly in 8th, and then there was another restart, and I passed two more, and another restart, passed a couple of more. Crap, we could have a go here. Passed one guy on the last one, and I'm, like, come on, Scotty, let's go.

Honestly, Dave, that was probably, even though it didn't work out in my favor, one of the most fun races of my career in one of the best race cars I've ever had. The car was so good. I had so much fun.

Yeah, the cautions and stuff were a bit inconsistent for all the driving in terms of we were just, like -- you get into a rhythm, and then you stop, and then you have to restart again, but to battle one-on-one with Scotty right where, Texas last year, I didn't really battle with him, I just wanted to bring him home in second.

Today I had a full go with him, and it was awesome. That was probably one of the top three best things of my career to date, that race.

THE MODERATOR: Even that said, the final restart, you, obviously, are trying to do whatever you can to get around. Are you going to have a second guess or think about what you did?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: A little bit. I was thinking a little bit of points as well. This is going to be a good points day with Ericsson out. And we're always back there, Justin is behind me, Alex as well. We were ahead of him. Pato as well.

At the end of the day, we just had a really good race today, and we did. The opportunity was there a couple of times, and then just it probably would have ended up with us both in the fence if I took it. We just missed out.

THE MODERATOR: For questions. Follow-ups for Alex, we'll go with that first.

Q. So you sort of answered this, but just to confirm, this was the first in-person conversation you've had with Chip since July 12th? You haven't talked to him since?

ALEX PALOU: Kind of. No, we -- like a conversation? Yeah. But, yeah, we spoke -- we see each other in the trailers and stuff, and it's not like we avoid each other. Yeah.

Q. Did it surprise you?

ALEX PALOU: No, not at all. No. I mean, no.

Q. So you had a feeling he would come over and congratulate you in the top five?

ALEX PALOU: Top three. It's not like he would be happy last year if I finished top five, to be honest. Yeah, top three, I think, he was -- even if Scott didn't win the race, he would come and congratulate. Yeah, he is happy. He has a car in the podium, so ...

Q. Then just one more for you. You may have answered this already, so I apologize. Was there something on the bridge where you had contact with somebody?

ALEX PALOU: Yes, with Power. He had some issues with the gearbox, I guess. They told me on the radio. So I was just trying to see what was going on, and he looked really good for two laps, so I thought it was okay, so I pressed my push-to-pass. I was going to go side-by-side, and I think he had to shift with the clutch or something like that, and he missed the shift or something.

It felt like he braked suddenly, and I touched with my front wing. Then I was lucky that it didn't completely break.

Q. For both of you guys, any difference in the alternative tire to your specification?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I didn't feel too much of a difference, no.

ALEX PALOU: Yes, I agree. It was good to run fast, and there was good degradation, and that's what we want so we can play with strategy. Yeah, it was good.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on the podium.

ALEX PALOU: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Scott?

Q. When you think of the series, I believe one of our conversations you talked about the first time you saw Scott Dixon for real you were, like, wow, you were star-struck by him. He was your hero growing up.

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Yeah, absolutely.

Q. Now here is this guy. He breaks Mario's place for second-place most wins, but he has to beat you to do it. Elaborate a little bit more when you said that's one of the best races of your career because of all the things that it involved?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Yeah, look, like I said, I just had a lot of fun, Bruce. I think it was just such an awesome battle. Strategy or not, I've had that this year as well. That's what happens. You find yourself in the right spot at the right time. You have the track position, but we had to work for our track position to come back, and that's why I had a lot of fun. Then to go toe to toe with Scotty, it was awesome.

Yeah, there's definitely that star struck is gone. We're probably more mates now, which is cool, and to call your hero mate is pretty cool. He is just a phenomenal guy. He is the greatest guy of all time, in my opinion. I think he doesn't get enough respect for what he has achieved. I think he is a phenomenal race car driver. Phenomenal bloke. To go toe to toe with him is a very cool thing for me in my racing career and it's like a bucket list thing.

Q. (Indiscernible) the crew guys were worried that with you restarting on the bridge with more push, the passes, that they may have been ripe for the picking. What was it necessarily that didn't go right on the restart that kept you from maybe making the race --

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I probably played it slightly safe. After you look back on it now, I think I was a little nervous with a tense around the tires. I think me and Scotty both knew he crashed on the restart coming to the green, like under yellow. Just being in the wrong gears and whatever.

Yeah, just I had to be smart there. I knew it was going to be a good points day. I had gained back what we had lost, so I knew it was going to be strong for us.

And, yeah, also don't want to crash a guy. I'll do what I need to do to win a championship, to win a race or whatever, but at the same time you've got to play fair. And I think Scotty is one of the best in terms of playing hard and fair, and I expect that for me and if somebody gives me that feedback, I'll give it back to them.

We had a good battle at Iowa. It was hard and fair, and today as well. What goes around comes around, and we always have pretty respectful, hard battles.

Q. I don't know if you have been told it yet (indiscernible) coming in, today's finish with the fourth closest on a street course between you and Dixon.

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I wish it was the other way around. (Laughing)

Q. That leads into the second part of my question. I think the finish between you and Josef was even closer at Texas --

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Fantastic. I'm good at finishing second? Is that what you are trying to say?

Q. You are 58 points back. You won twice this year. You are within two-tenths of winning four times this year. Do you feel like you are maybe on the brink of being able to have been a championship winner? If those things go the other way, I don't know how it plays out, you are either in the lead or incredibly --

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Yeah, and then you take into -- if I just stayed off the lab pedal at turn three and at Indy 500 and didn't crash there, it's points. Then Long Beach I hit the inside wall at Gumby, spun there, points.

There are so many. Indy GP we were leading, chose the wrong tire. Points. Like I've said to you and many people all year, we've had pace this year, and that's all I ever wanted. Last year was tough. I've always said it. It's tough mentally. To bounce back like we have this year, it's a proud moment. I still fully believe I can win a championship. I feel like I'm going to three tracks I really enjoy,

Gateway, Portland, Laguna.

Yeah, we might be an outsider, but I think I'll be an outsider as long as I can be, and maybe we can switch that closeness in second the other way.

I'm very proud of just the efforts. Me and Benny have worked really good together all year. Kyle Moyer, my strategist, my team have been fantastic. I'm proud of the advancements we've made as a team, and I can't thank my team enough for having their backs with me as well throughout that period when it was tough.

Q. The start-finish line had been a little farther down the straight there. Did you feel like you had enough there --

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I think if we had one more lap. I was alongside him, so I think I would have passed him, and I would have won the race, but that's -- if it was an 86-lap race, I would have won the race, but it was an 85, goddamn it. I'm going speak to the promoters. Why don't we add a little more next year? But then I might be another foot.

That's just motor racing. That's why we love it. I think it's a testament to INDYCAR. I was 16th with a fast race car. Sometimes in motorsport, if you have a fast race car, you can't pass, i.e., the European series.

I genuinely was able to pass, smash under brakes, do this, do that, have the best run of my life, and it's a testament to the race cars that we build and the packages that we have at INDYCAR. That's what I have come here racing, the best race in the world.

Q. I imagine you probably have a similar (indiscernible) heading into the (indiscernible) we had nine cautions last year and eight cautions this year and half of the races under yellow. Is there anything we can do to turn this race into more of a green race while still keep the excitement factor, or this kind of going to be what this race is?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: It's hard to say. At the start it was going smoothly, I'm like: This could be just a whole green race. But it wasn't. I don't know. I think you can't stop us from going for passes and doing bits and pieces. Some people get it wrong, and unfortunately, because it's so tight, it creates a bit of a cluster.

I'm looking forward to watching the replay because I saw some pretty big shunts, and see what happened today.

But I don't think sometimes that's not the track's issue. I think sometimes that's a driving issue as well. You know, it's just -- it's -- it takes two to tango. We've all been -- I mean, I spun out twice last year and still finished a race. It's just -- it is what it is.

Q. You may have just answered this, but without the subpar pit stop at the end --

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I think it would have been a lot easier to pass a few cars. I think the pace that we had, if I had fresher tires and things -- you know, yeah, maybe. It is what it is.

Like I said, my guys -- I'm not shutting them down. They've been amazing all year, and we've had just one -- this is our second hiccup, but it's not -- it's not been -- I just had a freak accident. We lost a nut, and it is what it is. That's our best guy, Matt Johnson. Yeah, we're good.

Q. Obviously, they make the change this year to the course, and everybody is predicting a smoother race, and I think they had as many cautions, airborne cars, wrecked cars and the like. Is it okay to have a race like this? Do you guys kind of like that it's maybe this is the brand of Nashville, is that it's wild every year? Is it still fun for you?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Potentially. It's not fun when you lose out on yellows with a fast race car, but at the end of the day, that's what -- it's just INDYCAR, and like I said, I don't -- it's as much of a driving issue as it is a track issue.

I mean, like it's not -- we're not just -- I think -- yeah. No, I don't blame the track at all. I think the track is a great track. Yes, it's tight. Yes, it's -- you've got to be assertive when you pass, but sometimes people just don't give up, and that's what happens.

But, look, I think the driving standards are great in the series. It's just sometimes things happen. It's racing. It's good spectacle. Unfortunately, it's probably one too many cautions that we have. I don't know if you are going to fix that by lengthening or shortening it. I think all the changes they did this year were fantastic.

Q. You mentioned Benny. Maybe explain to some of the people who don't know what that relationship is like with your engineer, Ben Bretzman. It's been fun to watch you guys on social media interact and play golf together. Is it one of those ones where you are friends and co-workers?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Yeah, yeah. We're definitely friends, which helps our relationship, I think because we're just very honest with each other.

Benny is a great guy. He is a people's person, and he was one of the first Team Penske engineering employees that I met when I came to INDYCAR to do my first simulating on the Chevy simulator.

That was a lot of fun, and we've just sort of grown our relationship since then. Played a lot of golf together over the last few years, and he was really my pick to be my engineer this year when I lost Jonathan.

I think he's enjoyed working with me. I think he has had a long relationship with Simon, which was a very good one. They're still great friends, but I think he has enjoyed just a little bit more of a fresh perspective with me, and vice versa.

We're enjoying it, and we'll keep working hard. He is a big team player. He is a big part of Thirsty Threes. He is the one that came up with the hashtag. He is a good lad.

Q. A wild card this weekend. Did you approach it that way? It's your first championship battle towards the stretch here. Relief to get second. And how big did your eyes get when you found out the red flag was coming out?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Yeah, the red flag I thought might have worked a little bit more in our favor. I kind of wished there was maybe ten laps, and we had two or three laps on the caution. I felt I was in a bit of a rhythm. When you slow down, you could feel your legs cramping up a little bit and getting a little tight. Just trying to keep the blood flowing in them and stuff.

It was -- yeah, just knowing that it was going to be a fight, but I also knew that, like I said, it's a wild card. To get pole like we did, to end up in 16th, I thought, God, this has gone bad, and to come back to where we were. It was, like, sort of helped ourselves a little bit here. Just keep focused and hopefully it works out. It did.

Q. Scott, just a quick thing. First of all, congratulations. I know the other Scott is not there right now, but it's the first-ever Kiwi 1, 2 in INDYCAR racing.

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Second. Remember Texas?

Q. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I finished second both times. (Laughing).

Q. I saw the club today of your mom and dad and your bus. Obviously get on Bus Bros in a round-about way on NBC. It's been fabulous having them there. Last race for them. What a nail-biter to give them before they fly home. For you, really, it reminds me so much of seeing you at Adelaide. You just gel with this track completely. Was this something unique that did that for you? Is it just the way the whole team approached the event?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I said it from the start. If we can have a car that we can roll out of the truck that's somewhere close, that was going to be awesome for us. And we were able to just tweak it throughout the weekend. From Saturday morning I think we touched the front wing. That's all we did. We just massaged it and made it better. That's a testament to Benny.

And then when you do that, you are able to work on yourself and work on your brake markers and work on finding things around the track that other people don't know because you are just that comfortable with the race car.

I put a lot of the pace down today just due to the fact that I knew my race car, knew what I had, and it's so important here on INDYCAR weekends. But, yeah, we didn't win today, but the second was huge. Like I said before, it's a bit of a wild card here these days, so to come out of here with second was great.

Q. It's kind of keeping you in the championship chase as well. I guess that's the thing that's now coming into your mind. Perhaps a little bit more so than what it did before coming into this race.

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Yeah. It was always there. Ultimately, top five is a massive goal, and then to win it would be an absolute bonus, but certainly still believe that we're as good a shot as anyone to win it.

I guess I'm the outsider. We can risk a little bit more and have a good time doing it. Yeah, I'm looking forward to throwing a few more sort of risky moves and trying to get myself in contention because I'm not unknown to winning championships. I know how to do it. It's a matter of having a car to be able to do it.

If we roll up to each track in the next few weeks with the car that we had, we should be in pretty good shape.

Q. I want to ask you how hard it is to keep focus on the race with a lot of yellow flags. Because we had quite a crazy race. Sometimes with competitivity of the series, after those yellow flags, you could have bigger chances to pass your rivals. So how hard were those restarts to keep focus with a lot of pauses along the race?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I felt like keeping focus was -- for me I sort of knew what I needed do, but the restarts were important for me because that's where I could make most of my moves.

I was really aggressive on the restarts to pass people and move our way forward. Once it all sort of strung out, it was quite hard to make our moves. Especially without a bit of risk.

We eventually made some with some risk, but at the end of the day, I felt pretty solid. Yeah, I felt really focused. Yeah, started to get really comfortable with the race car to be consistent on these race starts and understand what I've got even if it is a little bit loose.

Q. Did you feel today like a little bit scared on the track? Because we saw like two aggressive moves from some drivers today.

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Nope. (Laughing). I was fine, man. I just throw it in and hope we come out the other side.

Q. You're fortunate to have a multitude of great sponsors, but what is it about the DEX (indiscernible)? Maybe you want that the next three races?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Look, I don't know what it is, but they're great people, and they've supported me since I've come to INDYCAR. I played golf with Dan Doyle. They're a family -- family-owned, DEX, it's their family company. I played golf with him on Wednesday. I said, Hey, if I get pole Saturday, you got to come on Sunday. You got to fly up from Florida. He is, like, All right, deal.

Credit to him, he flew out this morning. I rang him on Saturday night. I said, Come on, let's go. It's your time to shine. And he did, and I was glad to put on a show for him and Dan Doyle III, his son.

They're great people and great sponsors for the series. I think they're going to be around for a long time.

Q. Are you superstitious at all? Kind of think about that a little bit?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: No, but it's a good thing when you perform well. Just makes you feel good. And thankfully I've been able to perform well for many people this year, and it just so happens that DEX have had two great races.

Q. That Kiwi drag race sends Wayne back on a high note. Have you had a chance to see him yet?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I saw him a little bit. He is, like, yeah, great sendoff. It was cool. It was cool. I think they were ready to go home. It's been a long journey for them all and long journey for me and my wife. Me and mom and dad, we're pretty close, but not that close. No, no. (Laughing). I'm going to see them back at Christmas. I was so glad that they saw -- I really wanted them to come to this race. The races that they came to, I said if you are going to come to the races and do -- like, you want to do a chunk, this part of the race series when you have four in a row and there's stuff going on, and it's Indy 500, and the Indy race with the NASCAR series, these are the races you have to come to. I'm so glad they did it because they'll probably never do it again.

But they're definitely going to sporadically come to a few more races later next year, but it was awesome. We had a great time. Great time.

THE MODERATOR: How long was it? 12 weeks?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: 88 days.

THE MODERATOR: Who is counting?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: We worked it out so they get a 90-day visa, so they literally have to get out of the country or Biden is going to come knocking. It's going to affect my U.S. citizenship one day. No. (Laughing).

Q. Follow up on that, I don't know how this works. If you are legitimately in the championship hunt and get to Laguna, is there any way they can make it back?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: They did say they would probably come back for Laguna if I'm in the championship run, but, yeah, it all comes down to cash and a few things because it's a big trip that they've done. Yeah, they bought a truck.

Q. (Off microphone)?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Have you heard that story? My dad bought a truck, and he sent it back to New Zealand, and he is going to convert it to right-hand drive because he loved it so much, and he wants to have a little bit of America in New Zealand.

I'm, like, you're crazy. Yeah.

Q. How much does it cost to convert it?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I have no idea.

Q. It's probably as much as the truck.

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Tell you what, I ain't paying for it. I'm just so glad they had a great time. It was just awesome. Yeah, it was great.

THE MODERATOR: Has it already been shipped?

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: It's gone. Yeah. I took it off our insurance yesterday. (Laughing). Took down the premium a little bit.

THE MODERATOR: Great job this weekend. Thanks so much, Scott McLaughlin.