DJR Team Penske co-owner Dick Johnson believes his two-time series champion driver Scott McLaughlin will leave the team at the end of the year, potentially allowing the Kiwi to head to the NTT IndyCar Series.
McLaughlin has won the two previous Virgin Australian Supercars championships in 2018 and ’19 with the DJR Penske outfit, breaking multiple records in the process.
Despite being committed to the Supercars team once again for the 2020 season, the 26-year old will compete in a fourth Penske car at the GMR IndyCar Grand Prix in May.
As well as taking part in pre-season testing at the Circuit of The Americas, he also took part in the Rookie oval test at Texas Motor Speedway.
However he has no further plans to race in IndyCar in 2020 despite a gap in his schedule to potentially race at Gateway in August.
“It’s pretty obvious that he will be gone next year,” Johnson told the Australian Daily Telegraph.
“We’ve just got to make the most of him in this year’s championship, because he’s obviously US-bound. It definitely will be, unless something unforeseen happens.”
“He has got a pretty good chance of it the way he has acquitted himself and bear in mind that he had never even put his backside in one of those cars before, it’s pretty special,”
“It is totally different, but when you can drive a motorcar of any sort, that’s what a real driver is. He seems to be able to extract… different things out of a car that others can’t.”
Speaking prior to IndyCar’s pre-season test, McLaughlin also spoke about how he was aiming to finish his career in the US.
“I’d love to get to America one day, potentially,” said the Kiwi.
“If I’ve done my goals in Australia. My wife is from America, she’s from New York. I’ve got a great career down under whatever happens with this, but eventually, I’ve always said, whether it’s now or in 30 years down the track I’d love to finish up here.
“I’ve always had a passion for American motorsport and would love the opportunity.”
