Scott McLaughlin dominated IndyCar’s 2026 season finale at Laguna Seca, leading 87 of 95 laps to secure his first victory since September 2024.
Scott McLaughlin ended more than two years without an IndyCar victory in emphatic fashion at Laguna Seca, controlling the 2026 season finale from pole to give Team Penske one final victory before the championship closed.
McLaughlin led 87 of the 95 laps around WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and crossed the line 1.3739 seconds ahead of Kyle Kirkwood, with Alexander Rossi completing the podium in third.
It was McLaughlin’s first IndyCar victory since Milwaukee on 1 September 2024 and ended a 36-race drought during which the New Zealander had collected six podium finishes without returning to Victory Lane.
The result also gave McLaughlin the eighth IndyCar win of his career and provided Team Penske with an encouraging finish to a season ultimately dominated by five-time champion Alex Palou.
McLaughlin turns pole into complete control
Pole position had already shown that McLaughlin and Penske had the pace at Laguna Seca.
The No. 3 Chevrolet started from pole after McLaughlin secured Chevrolet’s 250th IndyCar pole position in qualifying, and that speed carried straight into Sunday’s race.
After a first-lap incident involving Sting Ray Robb and Dennis Hauger caused the only caution of the afternoon, McLaughlin controlled the restart and rarely looked vulnerable afterwards.
His only spells away from the lead came as the pit-stop cycles played out.
Three clean stops from Team Penske supported a remarkably controlled performance, with McLaughlin eventually credited with 87 laps led around the 2.238-mile Californian road course. IndyCar’s official race report confirms the scale of his dominance.
After six podiums during the drought, Laguna Seca was a decisive conversion of pace into victory.
Watch IndyCar’s official Laguna Seca race highlights for the key moments from the season finale.
Kirkwood chooses championship security
Kyle Kirkwood emerged as McLaughlin’s closest challenger after starting sixth and moving into second during the opening phase of the race.
The Andretti Global driver remained within range through much of the afternoon and used the faster Firestone alternate tyre for the final stint, briefly reducing McLaughlin’s advantage to around 1.2 seconds.
But Kirkwood also had another objective.
Kirkwood later acknowledged that his team made its late-race decisions with the championship in mind rather than turning the final laps into an unnecessarily aggressive battle for victory.
Kirkwood brought the car home second and, with it, completed his strongest IndyCar championship season to date.
He finishes 2026 with 545 points, 86 behind Palou but ten clear of Christian Lundgaard.
Rossi gives ECR a welcome road-course podium
Alexander Rossi completed the top three for Ed Carpenter Racing.
It was Rossi’s first podium since finishing third at Laguna Seca in June 2024 and a particularly notable result given ECR’s difficulties on road and street circuits during the 2026 campaign.
Felix Rosenqvist finished fourth for Meyer Shank Racing, while David Malukas completed the top five in the second Team Penske Chevrolet.
For Rossi and ECR, third place offered something more valuable than simply another strong result to close the year: evidence that the team had finally found a more competitive road-course direction after a difficult season in that area.
Palou closes championship-winning season in eighth
Alex Palou had already secured the championship at Milwaukee, meaning Laguna Seca was effectively a victory lap for a driver who has again set the benchmark for the rest of the field.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver finished eighth after winning at Laguna Seca in both 2024 and 2025.
Palou ends the year with 631 points and six victories, securing his fifth IndyCar championship and an extraordinary fourth consecutive title.
Behind him, the battle for the remaining championship places was considerably closer.
2026 IndyCar final championship — top six
| Position | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Palou | 631 |
| 2 | Kyle Kirkwood | 545 |
| 3 | Christian Lundgaard | 535 |
| 4 | Pato O’Ward | 522 |
| 5 | David Malukas | 514 |
| 6 | Scott McLaughlin | 482 |
McLaughlin’s finale victory lifted the tone of his season even if it could not substantially change his championship position.
His three poles and seven top-five finishes showed flashes of the performance expected from the Penske driver, but the long absence of a victory had become increasingly difficult to ignore.
Laguna Seca finally removed that statistic. The official IndyCar standings complete the final championship picture.
A very different ending for McLaughlin
Just one week earlier, McLaughlin had been among those chasing Pato O’Ward during an extraordinary Milwaukee doubleheader.
As Tech Torque Media reported from Milwaukee, O’Ward won both races on the same Sunday while Palou secured his fifth championship.
Laguna Seca provided the final chapter.
This time it was McLaughlin who converted the pace into a victory, ending the same winless run that began after his Milwaukee success two years earlier.
The symmetry gives Penske something useful to carry into the winter.
McLaughlin led the first lap of the 2026 IndyCar season at St Petersburg and, fittingly, also led its final one at Laguna Seca.
Tech Torque Verdict
Scott McLaughlin could scarcely have chosen a more convincing way to end his victory drought.
Pole position was followed by 87 laps led, three clean pit stops and enough pace to keep Kyle Kirkwood under control even when the Andretti driver switched onto the quicker alternate tyre late in the race.
It does not rewrite a season in which Alex Palou remained the clear championship benchmark, but it does change the way McLaughlin and Team Penske enter the winter.
After 36 races without a win, McLaughlin leaves Laguna Seca with proof that the speed remains there.
Palou owns the 2026 championship.
McLaughlin gets the final victory — and an early reason to look towards 2027 with considerably more optimism.
