Motorsport: Indy 500 winner praises Scott McLaughlin's 'phenomenal' IndyCar debut

One of the most successful drivers in modern motorsport has called Scott McLaughlin's first drive of an IndyCar 'phenomenal'.

McLaughlin, fresh off claiming back-to-back V8 Supercars championships, is in the United States for a testing sesson with IndyCar outfit Team Penske.

"It's a dream come true," McLaughlin said in a video posted to his Twitter account.

"IndyCar is unbelievable... huge g-forces, big breaking, big grip, aero grip and balance; and I haven't stalled coming out of the pits yet so I'm happy."

At the end of a long day behind the wheel, McLaughlin was interrupted - while filming another video for his fans - by Will Power, the 2014 IndyCar series champion and 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner.

After seeing Power appear in the background of his video, McLaughlin asked the Team Penske fulltime driver what he thought of his performance.

"You did a good job, phenomenal job," Power said.

Power, along with teammates Simon Pagenaud and reigning IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden, attended the lenghthy session at the Sebring International Raceway in Florida as group, supporting McLaughlin's debut IndyCar drive with advice and feedback.

"140, 150-odd laps we did, my neck is absolutely torched - I need to work on that - but it's certainly a really cool opportunity," McLaughlin said.

"Do that many laps and you're gonna be spent tonight," Power added to give the young Kiwi some perspective.

Speculation has been rife that McLaughlin has his sights set on making a serious attempt to secure a seat in IndyCar after finding so much success in V8s.

His Supercars team, DJR Team Penske, is majority-owned by Roger Penske who runs three cars in the IndyCars competition as part of a wider motor-racing empire.

"Scott has been incredibly successful for DJR Team Penske over the last three seasons and he has become a true champion of our sport," Penske told Driven in December.

"He certainly embraces new challenges and we think this is a great opportunity to utilise the IndyCar Series rookie testing program so Scott can experience what it is like to get behind the wheel of one of our Indy cars."

McLaughlin seemed to relish the chance to drive a new class of race car and says he hopes to return to the US in the near future.

"It's all good, I'm really proud... hopefully I'm back in America sometime soon."