Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin could make a race appearance in the NTT IndyCar Series according to Team Penske President Tim Cindric.
McLaughlin – who races for DJR Penske in the Australian series – took part in a Chevrolet rookie test on Monday and impressed the team with how quickly he got up to speed in the Dallara IR18.
There are also potential plans to allow McLaughlin to join the IndyCar operation at the ‘Spring Training’ pre-season test at the Circuit Of The Americas on February 11-12, with the aim of allowing the New Zealander to have a race outing during the season.
“We haven’t finalized whether we’re going to be able to run Scott at COTA or not, so we’re still working on that,” Cindric told Motorsport.com.
“IndyCar won’t let just anyone show up to an open test without a commitment to running somewhere else. So that depends on if we can put something together in time for that test or whether there’ll be something else, another opportunity.
“We’re still trying to figure that out, but the first step was to go to Sebring.
“We’ve checked Scott’s schedule to see if the COTA open test is a possibility or not, and yes it is from that standpoint, but from the final decision standpoint, we still need to figure out that part of it.
“It comes with the caveat of knowing that we’re going to enter him in a race at some point.”
In order for a fourth Penske car to run, it would need help from its IMSA operation which would require a weekend free for both Supercars and IMSA to converge.
Such a weekend falls on the weekend of the GMR Indy Grand Prix, long-time Penske driver Helio Castroneves has to be officially confirmed for the seat which could allow McLaughlin in for the event.
Should Castroneves take up the seat for the month of May, other opportunities exist in the season for the Kiwi at Road America and Mid-Ohio, Portland and the season finale and Laguna Seca.
Discussion about this post