Scott McLaughlin has finished in third place in todays Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at the World Wide Technology Raceway in Illinois. McLaughlin remained consistent throughout the race, remaining in the top 10 for the majority of proceedings and was only pipped by Josef Newgarden and rookie David Malukas.
It was a race of two parts, with 213 laps undertaken during daylight until a significant rain delay saw the remaining 47 undertaken at night. McLaughlin had led into the delay, and should the event not have restarted would have been crowned the victor as half the race had been completed.
This was not to be the case, with Newgarden quickly picking the Kiwi off following the restart to maintain the lead and take his fifth victory of the season.
Championship leader Will Power led for 128 laps of the 260 lap event but was let down by strategy which saw him ultimately come home sixth. The win puts Newgarden into second in the championship standings, only 3 points behind Power.
Pato O’Ward finished behind McLaughlin in fourth, a result that sees McLaughlin take sixth place in the championship as it heads into its final two rounds.
Scott Dixon also ran with the front runners throughout proceedings but was unable to match the pace of his nearest rivals, finishing eighth behind Marcus Ericsson. This sees him lose his championship second spot to Newgarden and fall to third, still only 14 points behind the overall championship lead.
This years championship has been one of the closest fought in history, with ‘The Championship Seven’ seeing seven drivers mathematically in with a shot to win the title. The gap from first to seventh is only 58 points, with 62 being the maximum obtained over a race weekend.
McLaughlin and Dixon are both part of this group, and strong results in the final two races, being the Grand Prix of Portland and the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, could see a Kiwi atop the standings yet again at the conclusion of the season.
The Grand Prix of Portland is on September 4 and will be shown live on Sky Sports.
