When Scott McLaughlin joined IndyCar, he wasn’t simply hopping from one race collection to a different: He was leaping throughout hemispheres and disciplines. The New Zealander made his debut with the collection in 2021 alongside a stacked rookie discipline that included former Formula driver Romain Grosjean and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson. But by pairing the on-camera prowess of his Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden along with his personal persona, McLaughlin has rapidly outlined a distinct segment for himself within the eyes of IndyCar followers.
A giant a part of that comes right down to Bus Bros, the YouTube collection began by McLaughlin and Newgarden that options the 2 drivers donning inflatable costumes and getting as much as shenanigans within the IndyCar infield.
“It’s completely changed the amount of people that know who I am or what my personality is like,” McLaughlin advised Jalopnik in an interview in the course of the Hy-Vee Iowa IndyCar weekend. “Coming from [Australian] Supercars, so many people in America just didn’t know who I was, really.
And he isn’t wrong. Conceptually, some motorsport fans were aware of McLaughlin’s dominance in Supercars — his multiple championships, his rivalry with racing icons like Shane Van Gisbergen — but couldn’t have told you what he was like as a person. Bus Bros gave him a chance to be seen by IndyCar’s audiences in a new, more personal way.
“Bus Bros allowed me and Josef to show our personalities more because we’re representing ourselves,” McLaughlin defined. “We’re not representing [Team Penske], so it allows us to open up more. We can just kind of treat it like a home video.”
Of course, as public figures, McLaughlin and Newgarden nonetheless symbolize each IndyCar and Penske, even once they’re off the observe — which implies there are nonetheless some limits of decorum that dictate how a lot they will let their hair down.
“Me and Josef talk a lot of crap in the trailer and the debrief room,” McLaughlin mentioned of Bus Bros’ origins. “We decided we should just try something video-wise, but we didn’t really know what the concept was. We had one sheet of paper with some topics on it, but we didn’t even read off of that. We just started talking.”
The pure banter between the 2 drivers translated effectively to audiences. What began out as an thought for a collection of some movies has now turn out to be a race weekend staple that followers look ahead to with the identical devotion they must IndyCar as a complete.
But Bus Bros is just one side of McLaughlin’s on-line presence. He’s additionally an energetic Twitter person and was one of many first drivers to check out new types of social media, like Instagram’s Threads. Online, he’s in a position to have interaction with followers — and haters.
“If someone wants to talk crap, then I’m happy to talk back to them,” McLaughlin mentioned, laughing. “Especially when they’re wrong. I’ll call out someone for being an ass if they’re wrong.”
“Has that earned you respect among the fans?” I requested.
“Everyone’s careful what they say to me, because they know I come back at them,” he mentioned.
Source: jalopnik.com