IndyCar star Will Power backs Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin to be a hit in US

Will Power knows what it takes to be an IndyCar star and is predicting Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin to make a big impact in the US.

Scott McLaughlin will drive for Team Penske in next year’s IndyCar championship. Picture: Tim Hunter

Australian IndyCar star Will Power has predicted departing Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin can be a championship challenger in the United States.

Ahead of McLaughlin’s switch to race in the US in 2021 for Team Penske, Power said the three-time Supercars champion could “absolutely” be an IndyCar champion

McLaughlin bid farewell to Supercars at the end of the 2020 championship after he sealed a third-straight V8 title win with DJR Team Penske, which has now reverted to Dick Johnson Racing after the American motorsport giant’s departure from the V8 series.

The 27-year-old New Zealander will now join Team Penske’s four-car 2021 IndyCar line-up alongside former champions Power, Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden.

Scott McLaughlin will switch to IndyCar next year. Picture: Getty Images

Power, who won the IndyCar championship in 2014 and the Indianapolis 500 in 2018, said McLaughlin had the talent to make an impact in IndyCar.

“I think once you have raced at a high level in any top-tier series and you’ve won, you have the talent and potential and work ethic to get it done anywhere else, it just takes time,” Power told News Corp from the United States.

“So, yes I do think he will be (a challenger).

“He’s got a huge advantage by the fact that he is in the best team and he has got obviously very experienced fast teammates to learn off and I think that will really speed up the process significantly.

“I honestly think he is going to do pretty well based on his testing speed and how he went at the first race at St Pete.”

McLaughlin impressed during pre-season testing with Team Penske last summer and was sitting 17th before a mid-race tangle ended his IndyCar debut at St Petersburg in the series finale the week after Bathurst.

Scott McLaughlin impressed Team Penske in his IndyCar test in the United States early in 2020.

While Power said McLaughlin had the tools to be a success in the series, he acknowledged it would take time for him to adjust to racing open-wheel cars and new tracks against a field already experienced with them.

“He hasn’t really raced open wheel cars at a high level before but I think the level that he raced at in Australia and how competitive that series is sets him up well for how much work goes into being competitive,” Power said.

“Then there is learning the tracks and learning the car set-ups and that sort of thing, but it is all the things he would have gone through when he started racing in V8 Supercars.

“I went from Australia to Europe and spent three years racing in Europe trying to get to Formula One and then moved to the States, so I had spent a lot of time in open-wheel cars by the time that I got here.

“The toughest thing the first time you move into a series where you have had drivers in that series for more than a decade running the same cars, same tyres, same tracks is just that level of experience you have got to compete against.

“That’s the biggest adjustment. You are racing against people who know the game so well.”

Will Power knows what it takes to be successful in IndyCar. Picture: Getty Images

Power, who turns 40 next year, said he wanted to keep racing as “long as you are competitive”.

“I’m driving the best I ever have right now and as fast as I’ve ever been and as fit as I’ve ever been so we’ll see how the next couple of years pan out,” Power said.

“I won’t put a time limit on it but realistically you would have to say in the next four years I would probably be looking at retiring.”

And before his racing days were over, Power admitted he would be keen to make a return to Australia to race at Bathurst.

“I do want to come back and do Bathurst, I want to do Le Mans, I want to do some of those races, Daytona 24 hours, they are definitely on the list,” Power said.

“But I have been so heavily focused on being competitive in IndyCar, I haven’t put any effort into getting a ride in any of those series.

“But they are all races I would love to do.”