To Americans, New Zealand is the land down under, but the three-time V8 Supercar champion and 2021 IndyCar rookie contender is finding out that the United States can be just as upside down as Scott McLaughlin learns America.
Upon arriving stateside, McLaughlin created a checklist of essential tasks to complete. Among the first on that list was the creation of the Twitter hashtag #ScottLearnsAmerica so that his fans could follow along on his journey of discovery.
High on his list was watching football during the day. It didn’t take long for him to realize that football is neither soccer nor rugby.
Just got NFL Redzone, so excited.
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) November 15, 2020
McLaughlin’s wife? Maybe not so much.
First NFL Sunday with RedZone takeaway thoughts...
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) November 16, 2020
PROS: No commercials, So much football, see all the good stuff, my new couch is comfy.
CONS: don’t get off couch, snack too much, my wife loses her husband for a day#ScottLearnsAmerica
McLaughlin’s ruminations remind Americans of how much is taken for granted: namely convenience as the list filled with fast food joints, convenience stores and our ability to make anything into a drive through.
Drive through banks are pretty interesting and new, normally drive throughs down under are for burgers. I’ve been using the drive through bank a lot, out of pure laziness really.. #ScottLearnsAmerica
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) November 15, 2020
McLaughlin is learning not all aspects of American life are worthwhile.
In my life I’ve never experienced more telemarketer calls, I’d say 3-4 a day I’m getting trying to tell me my insurance is crap. Annoying.. 🤬 #ScottLearnsAmerica
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) November 12, 2020
And, of course, NBC has him covered.
Pretty happy right now, NBC golf channel is all time, watching golf at a normal hour is also ridiculously amazing. Can’t wait for the masters and not watching the final round at 3am! #newlittlethings pic.twitter.com/oXtDxwLtHP
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) November 6, 2020
The NBC Sports HQ sometime...
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) November 11, 2020
And if we catch him on a cheat day... New Haven for the best pizza in the country - in our totally unbiased Connecticut opinion. 🍕#ScottLearnsAmerica