Scott McLaughlin reveals he had a shocking 100G crash in IndyCar qualifying at Iowa

Scott McLaughlin has revealed that the impact of his crash in IndyCar qualifying for the Iowa double-header was a massive 100G. The Team Penske driver lost control of his car while going at 185 mph on the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway short oval in what was the biggest hit of his career.

McLaughlin crashed on the first lap of his two-lap qualifying run. He lost the rear of his car going into Turn 1, spun, went high, and crashed rear-first into the barriers. The rear wing, sidepods, uprights, and other components of his No. 3 Chevy were damaged and had to be repaired/replaced in under four hours before Race 1.

In a recent YouTube VLOG documenting the Iowa weekend from July 11 to 13, Scott McLaughlin spoke about the real impact of the crash. He said [3:25]:

"Here early for intros. Not the best feeling, but it is what it is. Got all cleared (by medical). Actually, the hardest hit I've ever had, a 100 Gs. So I had to go back to the medical truck to get checked off. But yeah, feel good."

For the unversed, a 100G impact means a force equal to 100 times the Earth's gravitational force. For reference, the biggest F1 crash in recent times was Max Verstappen's infamous crash at Silverstone after he made contact with Lewis Hamilton at the 2021 British GP in Copse corner, which was 51G. It broke his RB16B's seat.

To take an IndyCar reference, Scott McLaughlin's 100G crash surpassed Takuma Sato's heavy crash at this year's Indy 500 open test, which had a 94G impact. The sheer impact had left the two-time Indy 500 winner with a broken rib.

It is a miracle McLaughlin escaped unscathed at Iowa. Not only did he sustain no injury, but the Team Penske driver also put up a brilliant performance in Race 1 that day. He went from dead last on the grid in P27 to finishing in P4 and made 20 on-track passes.

---

Scott McLaughlin takes the blame for his qualifying crash after unfortunate incident in Race 2 at Iowa

After being the biggest mover in Race 1, Scott McLaughlin was aiming to replicate the performance in Race 2 the next day. However, on Lap 1 of 275, Devlin DeFrancesco spun in front of him and clipped his RLL car on the rear of McLaughlin's No. 3 Chevy.

Though there wasn't much the Team Penske driver could do to avoid the incident, he blamed his low qualifying position for the misfortune.

"Yeah, I just caught up in someone's incident. But that's on me, man. We qualified bad because of my crash," he said on the YouTube VLOG. "Thankfully, we had a good race yesterday."

McLaughlin's P4 finish in Iowa Race 1 was a much-needed Top 5 result after five races of sub-10th-place results, which included two DNFs. He'll look to keep the momentum going at the upcoming race weekend in Toronto from July 18 to 20.