Scott McLaughlin has become massively popular since moving stateside and doing the goods on the IndyCar circuit.
But for him, the best part of it all is the relaxed friendship he has developed with rival teams and drivers.
“I come from a series (Supercars) that was full of backstabbing,” McLaughlin told the Associated Press. “I just love how pure [IndyCar] is.
“You can have a blowup on the racetrack, but I feel like you can all have a beer together after.
“We just all have a ball because it is so pure, there’s no B.S., there’s no crap, and if you’ve got drama you say it to each other’s face.”
Before McLaughlin, Scott Dixon was a one-man Kiwi IndyCar band.
Now 41, Dixon continues to make a lot of the more youthful guys around him look amateur at best.
Heck, he just smashed the Indy 500 pole position record on Monday morning.
But still, IndyCar remains appealing for Dixon, and he can’t envisage himself doing anything else.
“The competition has always been crazy,” he said. “It really speaks for itself.”
Dixon’s pole run on Monday makes him the sixth different polesitter from the first six races.
From the first five races completed, four different drivers have claimed wins.
Penske’s Will Power believes IndyCar is already more competitive than its elite single-seater cousin, Formula 1.
“I think IndyCar is the most competitive open-wheel series in the world,” Power said.
“It’s more competitive than Formula One is, it just is, and you don’t have to take my word for it.
“Just look at the math: six-tenths (of a second) covers 23 cars in practice. Six-tenths covers how many cars in Formula One? One or two cars? That’s no joke.”
The 106th running of the Indy 500 is scheduled to start next Monday at 4.30 am NZT.
Image: AP (Darron Cummings)
