"A champ in our eyes": IndyCar fans react as Scott McLaughlin pens emotional note about family and Penske failures

Scott McLaughlin has penned an emotional note in line with his family and the 2025 failures with the Team Penske Racing team. Seeing McLaughlin pour his heart out via X, fans from across the world have come forward to show their support for him.

In the ongoing campaign, the Team Penske drivers have not had the best of times. Will Power, Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin have had several struggles on the race track for one reason or the other.

Specifically looking at McLaughlin's campaign, he is currently way down in P12 in the Drivers' standings and has only amassed 234 points after the first 12 races. He is nowhere in comparison to the championship leader, Alex Palou.

In regard to his family and on-track struggles, he said the following via X:

"Last few months have been the hardest in my career on track. A lot of promise, not too much delivery, luck, mistakes, a lot of those things play into these situations. I’m a big believer in that everything happens for a reason, I’m still so lucky I get to call this my job, I have a beautiful healthy family that I get to come home to and I have plenty of fans that wear my shirt every week without a doubt."

Seeing Scott McLaughlin's heartfelt post, fans have jumped onto X as they wrote:

"You’re a true professional. A champ in our eyes. My 8 year old son was sitting with me at Indy in Stand E watching you as you got out of your car. He had tears in his eyes. Trust me, you made a huge impact on him with how you handled that moment. Keep fighting. Wins will come."

A second fan had the following to say:

"I LOVE YOU SCOTTY."

Here are some of the other reactions:

"Great perspective Scott. Keep going #Thirsty3s" a fan wrote. "Always got your back" a fan added. "We’re all rooting for you!! the time will come" another added.

McLaughlin had an unfortunate DNF (Did Not Finish) in last week's Race 2 at the Iowa Speedway.

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"Huge team effort": Scott McLaughlin's take on P4 finish in Iowa Race 1

While fans have come out in numbers to show their support for Scott McLaughlin, he showed the world what he is capable of in Race 1 at the Iowa Speedway. After an unfortunate qualifying (crash), which meant that he started both races from P27, he roared up to P4 by the end of Saturday's Race 1.

He picked up places for fun in the 275-lap race around the oval track and ultimately ended his outing behind Team Penske teammates Will Power (P3), Josef Newgarden (P2) and Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward (P1). He said in a post-race interview:

"I don't know how many people saw, but the amount of people, that not only work on the No. 3 car, but the No. 2 and the No. 12, It was just a huge team effort to get back in the race."

Scott McLaughlin has been competing in America's highest class of open-wheel racing since 2020. He has so far amassed 68 race starts and has managed to put on board seven wins and 19 podiums.

In 2024, he put in a stellar IndyCar campaign, which helped him secure a third-place finish in the Drivers' standings. In the process of doing so, he secured 505 points alongside three wins, five pole positions and nine top-five finishes.

Taking into consideration that he is currently P12 in the 2025 Drivers' standings, it will be interesting to see where he will end this year's campaign. Only five Grand Prixs remain on the race calendar.

Edited by Luke Koshi