'Blown out of proportion': Nolan Siegel's radio rant no biggie for Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin
Nolan Siegel took responsibility for an expletive-laden rant on his in-car radio following a penalty for blocking at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Scott McLaughlin and Siegel spoke privately after the incident, and the Team Penske driver said he believes Siegel's radio comments were "blown out of proportion."
ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. — Nolan Siegel 's visit to Road America a year ago 'changed the course of (his) career.' Starting with Friday afternoon's practice at the National Park of Speed, the Arrow McLaren driver hopes he can put what's proved to have been a tough week behind him.
The 20-year-old competing in his first full IndyCar season was caught unleashing an expletive-laden rant on his radio during Sunday's race at World Wide Technology Raceway in reaction to being given a drive-thru penalty for blocking race leader Scott McLaughlin as Siegel tried to hang onto his spot on the lead lap.
Though it's certainly not uncommon for drivers to use their own colorful, inventive combination of four-letter words directed at drivers who've irked them or express their frustration or disagreement with a call from race control, Siegel took it one step further, yelling through his helmet for 'Penske to go (expletive) themselves' mixed into a series of repetitions of a two-word phrase — one of which starts with an "f" and the other a compound word whose literal definition is a male bovine's excrement.
The aftermath of Siegel's tirade culminated with statements from both he and Arrow McLaren on Wednesday. The team noted it had addressed Siegel's radio communications with him privately and that 'the language expressed over our radio … does not reflect who we are as a team. We do not condone this behavior.' In his own apology, Siegel said there was 'no excuse for what (he) said and that he 'regrets letting down the incredible group of people who support me both on and off the track.'
Hours ahead of stepping on track at Road America for the ninth race of the 2025 IndyCar season, Siegel said he felt he'd 'made everything right' over the last couple days and is working to maintain his composure in the cockpit moving forward — a trait he feels is important for any great racecar driver.
'What we're doing is extremely high-pressure, and there's moments that are extremely frustrating, and I think ultimately a big part of being a good racecar driver is staying strong in those moments,' he said. 'At the same time, if you look at any pro athlete, they have their moments of frustration, and unfortunately for me, it was caught on the broadcast.
'It's not something I can let happen again, and I will in the future work to stay more calm and not press the radio button. It was a culmination of a lot of frustrating things and a frustrating couple months. I need to not let that get to me.'
The incident with McLaughlin was the pair's second tangle in as many races, following the Team Penske driver getting into the back of Siegel early on in the Detroit Grand Prix and spinning out McLaughlin, who was given a stop-and-go penalty at Detroit for the contact, contended Siegel broke incredibly early and played some role in the incident, sparking a back-and-forth on Twitter between McLaughlin and Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan.
Not long after Sunday night's race at WWTR, Siegel and McLaughlin met privately off to the side in between Arrow McLaren's transporters and 'cleared the air.' Though he hadn't heard Siegel's radio statements at the time of their chat, McLaughlin said he continued to believe Siegel's apology was honest and said he believed doing so publicly was unnecessary.
'It gets heated all the time. I'm no angel. It is what it is. I've blown up many times,' McLaughlin said. 'I just back the guy on what he said to me, face to face, before I heard (the radio comments), cause we all say stuff in the moment that doesn't necessarily mean that it's true, right?
'I think we should be very careful on how we (judge) outbursts on the radio. I get that it's important to be sportsmanlike and whatever, but I didn't take offense to it. You do get heated, and it's a thing that happens, but I thought it was blown out of proportion a little bit for what it was.'
Siegel said Friday he had no recollection of the comments until it was replayed to him after the race, noting that by no means were the colorful comments 'a conscious thing,' but it also 'wasn't something I'm proud of.'
'No matter what, the penalty happened, and the stewards made their decision, and I have a lot of respect for (IndyCar stewards) Max (Papis) and Arie (Luyendyk) and have talked to both of them,' Siegel said. 'It was a mistake how I reacted in frustration in the moment and not something I should've done and not something I'm proud of.
'I have a lot of respect for Scott. I have a lot of respect for Team Penske. I have a lot of respect for the stewards and everyone who works in IndyCar. But to anyone saying how unacceptable it is, you're probably right, but at the same time, think back on everything you've done in your life, and maybe there's been a time when you've been upset and said something you didn't mean. I don't think there's anyone that can honestly say that that's never happened to them in life.'
A year ago at Road America, Siegel was in the heat of an Indy NXT title battle while still moonlighting as an IndyCar driver for a couple weekends that year with Dale Coyne Racing before being given an opportunity to jump into the No. 78 of Juncos Hollinger Racing for the weekend, with team officials deciding Agustin Canapino was not mentally fit to compete. In doing so, he vacated his Indy NXT ride with HMD Motorsports for the weekend.
In his off IndyCar weekend, he went and won Le Mans in his class for United Autosports — the sportscar team co-owned by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. In the interim, Siegel and his father Mark decided that with the Indy NXT championship unlikely to be achievable, the then-19-year-old would instead seek out a more robust IndyCar calendar for the remainder of 2024 and beyond. Though the team had only a month prior committed to having IndyCar rookie and ex-Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire race its No. 6 for the remainder of the season, Arrow McLaren opted to boot the young French driver for Siegel days ahead of the Laguna Seca race weekend.
Now with a season's worth of races under his belt with the front-running team, Siegel continues to search for a level of consistency and performance expected of a team that has its other two drivers sitting second and fourth in the championship. Even more important though, Siegel said, is focusing on "the process" and execution and letting the chips fall where they may.
Despite questions around Siegel's future, Arrow McLaren officials told IndyStar last weekend the team will maintain its full-time driver lineup for the 2026 season and has no plans to consider the possibility of luring away IndyCar's most valuable free agent: Team Penske's Will Power.
Entering Road America, Siegel sits 21st in points with just one top 10 and three finishes of better than 19th, including a 13th-place finish at the Indy 500 that saw him crash on the last lap.
'It's fun looking back on how far I've come and how different I feel coming into this weekend,' Siegel said. 'I'm very much looking forward to getting back here under different circumstances in a stable environment in the Arrow McLaren car.
'We're gonna continue to focus on the process and not the results. We've had a lot of weekends where the result has been bad, but there's been a ton of potential. We've had really good pace and really good racecars. We've worked together well, and it just hasn't come together, so for me, I'm continuing to focus on doing everything in my power to make it a good weekend, and if it doesn't come for some other reason, then it is what it is, but if I can leave every weekend feeling like I did everything I possibly could to get a result, then I'm gonna be happy with that, and we're gonna fix whatever it is that's not allowing us to get it.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox Sports
2 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Caio Collet Fends Off Dennis Hauger in Second Road America Practice
INDYCAR Caio Collet kept the upper hand on championship leader Dennis Hauger during the second practice for the Grand Prix of Road America on Saturday, eyeing his first pole and victory of the INDY NXT by Firestone season. 2024 series Rookie of the Year Collet was quickest at 1 minute, 52.3358 seconds in the No. 76 HMD Motorsports car, nearly one second quicker than his session-leading time of 1:53.1345 from Friday. Collet is third in the standings, 78 points behind Hauger, with a best start and finish this season of second in the INDYCAR development series. SEE: Practice Results Hauger was second once again, this time at 1:52.3998 in the No. 28 Nammo car of Andretti Global. Myles Rowe jumped from sixth Friday to third in the 45-minute session today at 1:52.8789 in the No. 99 Abel/Force Indy machine. Callum Hedge also charged up the leader board today on the 14-turn, 4.014-mile circuit, climbing from seventh to fourth at 1:53.0088 in the No. 17 Abel Motorsports car. Salvador de Alba rounded out the top five at 1:53.3482 in the No. 27 Grupo Indi entry of Andretti Global. Lochie Hughes, second in the standings and just 19 points behind Hauger, ended up seventh at 1:53.3950 in the No. 26 McGinley Clinic/USF Pro Championship car of Andretti Global. Hughes was third Friday. Up next is qualifying at 1:30 p.m. ET today. The 20-lap race starts at 11 a.m. ET Sunday. Live coverage of both sessions will be provided by FS1, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network. recommended
Fox News
4 hours ago
- Fox News
From Strategy To Cheese, Here's What You Should Know Before Road America
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Road America. America's National Park of Speed is what they like to call it. The 14-turn, 4.014-mile course presents plenty of challenges for INDYCAR drivers. It runs through a picturesque setting, including fields and a small forest situated about 90 minutes north of Milwaukee. The 27 INDYCAR drivers get practice Friday afternoon and another Saturday morning, before qualifying on Saturday afternoon. They have a brief warm-up on Sunday before the 55-lap race, which airs at 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX. But there's so much to dive into before Road America. Has Nolan Siegel squashed his beef with Scott McLaughlin? Do drivers have a special strategy for this four-mile course? And since we're in Wisconsin, will cheese be on everything? Let's get you ready for the race. Here's everything you need to know. Who's the favorite? Last year, Team Penske drivers went first, second and third. Will Power won an emotional victory (snapping a 34-race winless streak), Josef Newgarden was second and Scott McLaughlin rounded out the podium. Does this mean this will be another Penske or Chevrolet race? Chevrolet desperately needs a win, as Alex Palou (five wins) and Kirkwood (three wins) have won all the events this year in Honda-powered cars. "It was [a Chevy track] last year," Kirkwood said. "Every track's been a Honda track this year. I hope that trend doesn't go away this weekend." Can Kirkwood win three in a row? Kirkwood has won the last two races. Those were at the Detroit Grand Prix and World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway). He's got three wins this season. "Momentum is a big thing in motorsports, and I think it's in all sports," Kirkwood said. "When you have that momentum, things come to you a little bit easier. That race [at Gateway] we didn't really take the bull by the horns. It kind of came to us with some penalties, and we just did everything right. "And then next thing you know, we cycle out into the lead. ... To me, that just feels like momentum." What about the Penske teams? The Penske drivers finished 24th, 26th and 27th last week at Gateway. Will Power suffered a flat tire and Josef Newgarden got involved in a scary wreck, where he flipped up upside-down. Then McLaughlin had a mechanical issue. "We just had some luck not go our way," McLaughlin said. "The head's still up. ... The best thing is, we had bad luck. But I'm not slow." Is McLaughlin mad at Nolan Siegel? Siegel was penalized for blocking McLaughlin at Gateway, as McLaughlin attempted to lap him. A week earlier, McLaughlin was penalized for avoidable contact with Siegel at Detroit. This all led to Siegel's profanity-filled outburst that went viral. "It gets heated all the time. I'm no angel," McLaughlin said. "I spoke to him after the race. We're all good. I just wanted to clear the air, make sure there was no beef between the two of us. "But I hadn't heard what he said on the radio before that. So I back him [from] what he said to me. He said it wasn't a retaliation of Detroit." Furthermore, McLaughlin said he did feel the penalty was warranted. "The way that he drove me down — regardless if it was me or if we had beef before that or whatever — it shouldn't have happened. "That's what I said to him as well, and he and I think he knows that. ... Luckily, we had room on the inside there. If there was grass, that could be bad. So you need to penalize people for that." How does Siegel feel? Siegel chose his words carefully. "No matter what, the penalty happened and the stewards made their decision, and I have a lot of respect for [them] and I've talked to both of them," Siegel said. "It was a mistake how I reacted." Siegel wasn't as careful with his words during the race last Sunday. He ultimately apologized for his expletive-laden tirade. "The fact is what we're doing is extremely high pressure, and there are moments that are extremely frustrating," Siegel said. "And I think ultimately, a big part of being a good race car driver is staying calm in those moments. ... It's not something that I can let happen again. "I will continue in the future to stay more calm and not press the radio button. It was a combination of a frustrating couple months. I need to not let that get to me." Did Siegel apologize to Pato O'Ward? It was the last restart of the Gateway race. Siegel was a lap down, and he restarted ahead of his Arrow McLaren teammate O'Ward. This potentially stalled O'Ward's ability to make a pass for the lead as Siegel was trying to get his lap back, fighting the leader Dixon. Siegel, O'Ward and Kyle Kirkwood — the eventual winner — were three-wide, with O'Ward getting the raw end of the deal. If O'Ward had been able to get the lead, the track position potentially would have led to an O'Ward win. Siegel said the team had told him to do his best to pass Dixon to unlap himself. So there wasn't much discussion on the issue during the week. He said he didn't even realize he was three-wide. "I was told to try to pass Dixon to get my lap back for me in the car," Siegel said. "I obviously got a bad jump on the restart, and at that point, the only thing I really could have done differently was lift a little early into Turn 1 and let Pato by. "In the moment for me, I was told the best thing for my race was to go try to chase Dixon down, and I took a lap to try to do that. "At that point, it was too late." What about the points leader? Alex Palou finished fourth here last year. At Road of America, he has two wins, two seconds and a third. The next two races at Road America and Mid-Ohio are probably opportunities for him to dominate. And that's before a double-header at Iowa, a potential place where Palou could struggle, giving other drivers a chance to make up ground. Palou had won five of the first six races and then crashed out of the Detroit Grand Prix. Last week at Gateway, he finished eighth. "Detroit, I had a lot of fun until I crashed," Palou said. "Gateway. I didn't have fun at all at any point. We were really good in practice, but then, for some reason in the race, I was not comfortable. Although the result was actually OK and the last stint was good. The rest of the race, I was struggling a lot. "It's great [to be here]. I love this place." Is there strategy at Road America? Kinda but less than on most weekends. With a track that is longer than four miles, there is more risk to run a lap or two longer or shorter than the other drivers. That could hurt a smaller team that wants to do something off-strategy while hoping it works out. But then again, for a driver who has pace, it is a clear-cut race. "This track in particular, I feel like you can race [everyone] straight up just because of how big it is, how long it is, and all the passing zones," said A.J. Foyt Racing driver Santino Ferrucci said. Anything else when it comes to this race? This is the first race at Road America with the hybrid, so teams will be learning that. And it will be hot. Temps will potentially be in the 90s for the race, and that could impact how much grip the tires have. Will the heat change things? "I don't know," Kirkwood said. "That's a great question. It sure will for overall grip, tire [wear]. Power-wise? I have no idea." Does everything sold at the track have cheese? We haven't been to every food truck and concession stand across the circuit, but this is the land of cheese and cheese heads. If any food (other than ice cream) sold doesn't have cheese on it, it should. If it doesn't, then it shouldn't even qualify as food here at Road America. Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
Fox Sports
5 hours ago
- Fox Sports
From scandal to strategy: Kyle Moyer's new role at Arrow McLaren Racing
Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Kyle Moyer, one of the three Team Penske executives fired during an Indianapolis 500 scandal, has been hired by Arrow McLaren Racing and will be with the IndyCar team this coming week for a test session at Iowa Speedway. Moyer was hand-selected to join McLaren by team principal Tony Kanaan. The two won the 2004 IndyCar championship together at Andretti Global. Moyer was Kanaan's team manager at the time. At McLaren, Moyer will be the director of competition and assist Scott Harner, who is the director of race operations. He will also replace Kanaan as strategist for Nolan Siegel, freeing Kanaan to work on race day with all three McLaren drivers. Moyer's official start date is June 30. Kanaan said almost the entire industry tried to hire Moyer after his May firing at Penske, but the previous relationship between Moyer and Kanaan gave McLaren the edge. 'Kyle is one of the best strategists in the paddock, so talking about his qualities, not just about him as a human being, he knows a lot about racing,' Kanaan told The Associated Press. "Kyle probably is one of the top guys of knowledge of IndyCar — he's been around it his entire life. 'And Kyle is a people person, he's that kind of guy that captivates people and people want to work for Kyle,' Kanaan continued. 'At the same time, he is very direct and he will call you out and he makes it so every person I've ever seen working for Kyle wanted to work for Kyle. That's something that I experienced in my career and that is probably the biggest thing. The respect that I have for the guy is unbelievable.' Moyer's popularity was evident when Penske driver Scott McLaughlin lashed out after the trio of firings ahead of the Indy 500. Moyer was let go along with team president Tim Cindric, a 25-year Penske employee, and managing director Ron Ruzewski. Moyer was Penske's general manager of the IndyCar program and the strategist for McLaughlin's car. The firings followed the discovery that the cars of Josef Newgarden and Will Power had illegally modified rear attenuators; Cindric said seams on the safety part had been sealed for aesthetic purposes, but the rulebook clearly stated no alterations could be made to the part. It was the second major technical violation for Penske cars in just over a year and team owner Roger Penske was left with no choice but to fire his top three executives. Penske owns the three-car race team, the IndyCar Series, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. 'Ultimately, those three guys are friends of mine and have done a tremendous amount in my career to get me to this point,' McLaughlin said in May after the firings. 'I guess you could say there's a sadness from my perspective. At the end of the day I drive for Roger Penske. I respect the decision. I understand the decision. We move forward.' Kanaan said he was shocked that Moyer did not have a non-compete clause and was available to McLaren immediately. He believes Moyer will be a help to Siegel, the 20-year-old in his first full season of IndyCar. Siegel heads into Sunday's race at Road America in Wisconsin ranked 21st in the standings. Moyer will eventually relocate from North Carolina, where Penske is based, to Indianapolis for his role with McLaren. ___ AP auto racing: recommended
