Meyer Shank Racing will conclude its years-long business relationship with Andretti Technologies at the end of the NTT IndyCar Series season and embark on a new relationship with Chip Ganassi Racing.
The multi-year arrangement will see the team co-owned by Mike Shank and Jim Meyer receive full technical support the reigning Honda-powered IndyCar champions who will supply complete engineering staffs for the Nos. 60 and 66 Hondas, setup information for both cars, dampers, data from CGR’s drivers, and have MSR’s drivers participate in group debriefs with six-time champion Scott Dixon, two-time champion and current championship leader Alex Palou, and the rest of CGR’s roster.
“There’s a lot of questions out there, and I just want to say, yes, we’re entering into an agreement with Chip Ganassi Racing and we could not be more excited about it,” Shank told RACER. “And I’ve got to give a huge thanks to Andretti Global with all they’ve done for us.
“Always open communication with (Andretti COO) Rob Edwards, who’s an absolute prince of a guy to me and the team, and they’ve done what they said they’re going to do. We’ve had good success and we had a big resurgence this year. That’s all due to them. But I think this deal with Ganassi could potentially take us to another level.”
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The timing of the new connection between CGR and MSR is advantageous for both teams. With CGR expected to downsize from five entries to three in 2025, the technical alliance creates a pathway for its talented engineering corps to remain intact through the deployment of some members to run Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 60 Honda and whoever Meyer and Shank decide to hire for the No. 66 Honda.
Rosenqvist entered IndyCar with Ganassi in 2019 and produced a career-best finish of sixth in the championship and won his first race with the team in 2020. And for MSR — which entered IndyCar in a one-off Indianapolis 500 deal with Andretti Global, moved to Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (known today at Arrow McLaren) as its technical partner, and then returned to Andretti when SPM transformed and switched to Chevy engines — the upcoming alignment is another big step as it pairs with the best team in IndyCar over the last four seasons.
It also, as Shank explains, maintains the same decision-making autonomy MSR held in its previous technical support contracts. Amid speculation that CGR would use MSR as a satellite team to run an extra car or to place its drivers amid downsizing, Shank says MSR is the sole voice on who will drive its cars. The team has the most coveted available seat in the series — the No. 66 entry driven by AJ Foyt Racing-bound David Malukas — to fill.
“Going forward, it’s exactly how our previous technical agreements had gone with Schmidt and then Andretti,” he added. “We run the team, we pick the drivers, we pick the team members, and then we’ll work together on the technical side. There’s no involvement in me telling them how to run their team and there’s nothing coming back like that our way from them.
“It’s a respectful arrangement like it has been with the other teams we’ve worked with. We have a bunch of good drivers to pick from with the 66 car and we’re probably 30-60 days out from making that call.”
Exploring a relationship with CGR was expedited after MSR was awarded a new factory contract by Honda Racing Corporation US to field its Acura ARX-06 hybrid IMSA GTP cars next year. It gives the Ohio-based team two significant programs to facilitate within the Acura/Honda camp.
The Acura ARX-06s, which are currently fielded by Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti, will be handed over to MSR in the coming months as WTRA shifts to running factory Cadillacs. Along with Andretti’s desired launch of a Formula 1 team with Cadillac, the heavy involvement with General Motors was another factor that led Shank to search for a technical partner whose links to Honda have an extended runway.
“We wanted to make sure we’re united across the front, and I’m not totally sure — I kind of know short-term — where Andretti is going, but I don’t know long-term,” Shank said of Andretti Global, which is understood to have a Honda contract through 2025. “I felt like we needed to make a change now before it became a big, big issue, especially with the addition of our IMSA program.
“We are hiring so many people on the technical side for GTP, but with IndyCar, we’re still not ready to go out on our own; we think it would be difficult to get the right group together. Based on where our overall business is going with programs in two big series, we felt it was best to create another alliance for IndyCar for ourselves and for Honda. And I feel like we’ve done that with Ganassi.”
The arrangement with CGR is limited to MSR’s IndyCar effort; CGR, which is parting with Cadillac at the end of the season in GTP, is actively searching for a new IMSA program to backfill the vacancy.
MSR has four more races to contest with support from Andretti Technologies, and in the time he’s spent so far with Ganassi’s leadership, Shank is pleased with where the union is headed.
“Our alliance with Andretti has always been very good,” he said. “But in this case, I feel more integrated. On the Andretti side, they’ve done exactly what they promised us and nothing less. So I don’t want to take away from that, but I do feel there’s an opportunity here to become more interwoven with the two companies. That’s huge for us, and hopefully, for them.”