Max McLaughlin will make his debut at Indianapolis, Indiana’s .686-mile short track on Friday night in hopes of restarting a streak of top-10 finishes. The track affectionately referred to as “Indianapolis Raceway Park” has helped launch some of the most famous names in the sport, and McLaughlin looks to do the same and jump start his season. He had posted six consecutive top-10 finishes at tracks less than one mile from South Boston Speedway in 2019 through New Smyrna Speedway in February before a mechanical issue ended his effort at Toledo Speedway. His father, Mike, scored three podium finishes at Indianapolis in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and “Mad Max” looks to follow in his footsteps on Friday night.
Back at the Day Job … Three weeks have passed since McLaughlin last strapped into the No. 1 Mohawk Northeast Toyota Camry, but he’s stayed busy with dirt racing exploits. He made his midget debut with fellow Toyota partners, Keith Kunz Motorsports, at Paragon Speedway during Indiana Midget Week and returned to the seat of a Big Block Modified at Orange County Fair Speedway (Mechanicstown, N.Y.) the past two weeks. McLaughlin gets back to the business of his “day job” in Indy as he and the No. 1 team are focused on capturing their first victory of the season in the team’s first visit to the popular Indiana short track.
Chassis Selection … For the second time in three races this season, McLaughlin will pilot chassis No. 010 at Indianapolis. Most recently, this chassis competed at Toledo Speedway on June 13th and finished seventh in the final event of 2019 at Dover International Speedway. The No. 1 team recently tested this chassis in preparation for Friday night.
Tune In … McLaughlin’s third ARCA Menards Series start of 2020 will be televised live on MAVTV and on NBC Sports Gold TRACKPass at 8:00 p.m. ET. Stay connected with McLaughlin and the No. 1 team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, @hattoriracing on Instagram, and Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook.
Max McLaughlin Quote:On making his first appearance at Indianapolis:“We went to test after Toledo to try and improve on some things and I think we learned a lot that will help us at Indy this week. It looks like a place that is really racey and is pretty unique compared to the other places we run, and definitely isn’t your typical short track. The corners are really long with some progressive banking, so getting our Mohawk Northeast Camry to cut in the center of the corner is going to be huge. I felt like we were really close at New Smyrna to start the year, and I think we can have similar speed this week at Indy. The guys at HRE have put in a ton of effort on our program and it’d be great to give them another win, as well as everyone at Toyota and TRD.”
HRE PR
