Motorsport: Scott McLaughlin, Scott Dixon claim thrilling 1-2 finish in dramatic Milwaukee race

Scott McLauglin won in Milwaukee for Team Penske. Photo / File, Getty Images

Scott McLaughlin has driven to his third victory of the IndyCar season, as he and compatriot Scott Dixon claimed a 1-2 finish at the Milwaukee Mile.

In a close finish, Team Penske’s McLaughlin took the chequered flag by just 0.4588 seconds over Dixon, as the Kiwi pair stood on the top two steps of the podium.

McLaughlin’s win saw him move to third in the IndyCar championship standings with 475 points, exactly 50 behind Dixon’s Chip Ganassi teammate Alex Palou on 525. Team Penske’s Will Power is second with 492 points. There is one race left in the season.

Starting second on the grid, McLaughlin benefited from teammate Josef Newgarden’s early crash, and led for 85 of the 250 laps.

Once McLaughlin retook the lead on lap 217, a shootout against Dixon followed, and the pair battled to the finish after a safety car on lap 239 narrowed the field. Andretti’s Colton Herta finished third to complete the podium.

“That was the most fun race I’ve had in IndyCar,” said McLaughlin. “That was a blast. So happy for everyone on the Gallagher Chevy, we just stuck with it.

“It wasn’t quite good at the start – the car – and then we just tuned her up and it was awesome.

“Yeah, [we] burned the house down today. I’m pumped.”

The victory in Milwaukee came after McLaughlin was denied victory in the weekend’s first race of the season, where he crossed the line in eighth after being unable to win from pole.

While his own chances of a seventh title might be gone, sitting in fifth in the championship with 443 points, Dixon recognised the significance of another New Zealand-dominated podium.

“Congrats to McLaughlin,” said Dixon. “Pretty sweet to have a Kiwi 1-2 ... yesterday was a mess.

“Qualifying just put us in a big hole, to come from 17th we just kept moving up all day, had really good runs going. Just one more would have been cool.”

However, compatriot Marcus Armstrong couldn’t replicate the success of the Scotts, and crashed on the sixth lap for a DNF.

With a total of 50 points available for a race win, as well as bonus points for pole position, leading the most laps and leading at least one lap, the IndyCar title is not mathematically beyond McLaughlin’s reach.

However, the Kiwi will need both Palou and Power to endure serious misfortune over the course of the final weekend of the season if he’s any chance of claiming his first championship.

The IndyCar season finishes on September 16 (NZ time) with the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville.

Alex Powell is an Online Sports Editor for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016, and previously worked for both Newshub and 1News.