Kiwi hope Scott McLaughlin has set his sights on victory in next weekend's iconic Indy 500 above his pursuit of the IndyCar championship crown.
In his second season on the US motorsport circuit, the former Aussie Supercars ace sits third on championship standings, after his season-opening maiden victory at St Petersburg, Florida, in February.
McLaughlin's form has tailed off in recent outings, as he struggled through Indy 500 qualifying in 26th last week, but he insists success at Indianapolis would rank above overall season honours.
"For me, I look at it the same way as Bathurst," he said. "I wanted to win Bathurst more than the [Supercars] championship, purely because you had to put it all together on the one day.
"It's the same thing for Indy. If I won the Indy 500, it would make my year... it would make my life.
"You've got to be perfect on the day, it's such a hard race to win, you've got to put yourself in positions. It's very tough to do and that's why that want to win is even higher."
McLaughlin doesn't have to look far to appreciate just how difficult victory at 'The Brickyard' is to achieve. Fellow Kiwi Scott Dixon has secured pole position for the fifth time in an illustrious career than has yielded six IndyCar titles.
Dixon, 41, recorded the fastest pole-qualifying time in the event's history, yet despite leading the field out in 2008, 2015, 2017 and 2021, he has only converted one of those (2008) into victory.
Similarly, McLaughlin won three consecutive Supercars championships between 2018-20, but prevailed around Bathurst's Mount Panorama only once in 2019.
Last year, in front of a restricted crowd due to COVID-19, he started his Indy 500 debut at 17th on the grid and finished 20th, but feels more at home second time round.
"Everything I've learnt since that race, even at other tracks, has really helped me," he said. "I'm definitely in a calmer position now.
"I feel a lot more at ease, I feel like I belong here, and I certainly understand the race a lot more and what it's all about.
"I'm super excited to see what it's like as a full Indy 500 with the amount of people here - I think there's going to be 400,000, so that will be crazy."
The flag will drop in the 106th edition of the Indy 500 at 4:45am Monday (NZ time).
