Meyer Shank Racing – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Armstrong, Lundqvist, Blomqvist pass Indy 500 Rookie Orientation

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong and Linus Lundqvist turned 92 laps in their cars on Wednesday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway while completing their Indy 500 Rookie Orientation Programs. Meyer Shank Racing’s Tom Blomqvist, who was the …

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong and Linus Lundqvist turned 92 laps in their cars on Wednesday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway while completing their Indy 500 Rookie Orientation Programs.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Tom Blomqvist, who was the fastest of the three in his No. 60 Honda, finished his ROP running in 70 laps and left IMS with a quick lap of 220.176mph. Lundqvist was next at 219.504mph in the No. 8 Honda and Armstrong completed the list at 219.252 in the No. 11 Honda.

“It’s boyhood dreams coming true, you know?” Blomqvist said. “It’s such a cool, iconic place. What a phenomenal day — really, really excited. Enjoyed every minute of it. Definitely had a big smile on my face after that first proper run. I can’t wait to come back here. So much to learn; I still feel like I’m a novice, which I basically am. I was very fortunate to get these laps under my belt before coming back here again, so there’s a lot of time to process things. Just a cool day, really.”

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Armstrong has been pining to lap the big 2.5-mile speedway since he decided to go full-time next season with the defending series champions.

“I’ve enjoyed it a whole lot more than I expected,” Armstrong said. “I’m not saying I didn’t expect to enjoy it, but I think the intensity of it is pretty special and watching onboards and on TV is one thing, but actually feeling how the car moves and how the wind affects you and the tiny details of this place – and Texas – has kind of given me so much enjoyment.”

For 2022 Indy NXT champion Lundqvist, who did his first IndyCar oval race in August at World Wide Technology Raceway, completing Indy’s ROP was another step in his journey to earn his place at top step of American open-wheel racing.

“It’s unbelievable,” Lundqvist said. “With the speeds that you’re going, it feels so fast. With the history and legacy around this place, it just feels magical. Even though the grandstands are empty, I can only imagine what it will feel like when they’re full. Even now it’s very, very special.”

Meyer Shank to pause sports car effort after Petit Le Mans

Meyer Shank Racing’s run at next week’s Petit Le Mans, the IMSA season season finale, will mark the team’s 351st and last sports car outing until a new program can be established. Despite its ongoing efforts to find a new factory initiative to lead …

Meyer Shank Racing’s run at next week’s Petit Le Mans, the IMSA season season finale, will mark the team’s 351st and last sports car outing until a new program can be established.

Despite its ongoing efforts to find a new factory initiative to lead for 2024, MSR team owners Mike Shank and Jim Meyer ran out of time to conclude a deal to continue in IMSA next season. Talks will continue in the weeks and months ahead, and with a championship-winning crew to look after, MSR will continue to employ the members of its GTP program to have a turnkey operation that’s ready to act once its next IMSA relationship is forged.

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The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s 10-hour race on October 14th brings the long-anticipated end to MSR’s factory relationship with Acura, which earned three combined IMSA GTD and DPi titles and a pair of Rolex 24 At Daytona victories in partnership with the Ohio-based team since 2019.

Despite reaching the conclusion of its factory effort with Acura, MSR’s relationship with Honda in the NTT IndyCar Series is unchanged. Coming off of disappointing seasons in 2022 and 2023, MSR will focus all of its energies on improving its IndyCar fortunes with the all-new lineup of Felix Rosenqvist and Tom Blomqvist; four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves will return at the Indy 500 where MSR’s IMSA squad will run its third car.

“Making the decision to take a year away from IMSA was not an easy one by any means,” Shank said. “Our guys live and breathe this team, and have committed most of their lives to working on these cars and traveling to races – and many of them have been with us for nearly 20 years. For Jim and I, our main focus was getting our guys set and making sure they were all going to be OK, which we were able to do.

“There are a lot of projects that we have going at the shop, and of course some of the guys will be helping with our growing IndyCar program. The third Indianapolis 500 entry for Helio is a very big deal and I’m glad to have the right people in place to help us be as ready as possible for him to go get that fifth one. And then when we need to prepare for the IMSA program, we’ll still have this great group together and ready to go.”

The change comes in the wake of the cheating scandal at January’s Rolex 24, which MSR won for Acura with the new ARX-06 hybrid GTP machine, but in the weeks that followed, the team was found to have circumvented the rules and race with lower tire pressures than were allowed by the regulations.

Although the team was allowed to keep the victory, the saga was brought to light by Acura, which reported the findings to IMSA. With the embarrassment caused by the matter, the Japanese brand was expected to wind down its GTP program with MSR; in May, the expansion of Acura’s other factory team, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti, with a second ARX-06, was confirmed for 2024. WTRA is likely to take possession of the No. 60 MSR Acura at the conclusion of Petit Le Mans.

“I have so many people to thank who have had such an impact on me and how this team has grown – Jim France has been a supporter of us since we joined the series in 2004 and he’s someone that I cannot thank enough,” Shank added. “Jon Ikeda, David Salters and everyone at Honda, HPD, and Acura, gave MSR a shot and trusted us to run this program for the last few years and we have accomplished some pretty awesome things since running together.

“All of my crew and drivers who have been with us – and we have a pretty large list – I can’t thank them enough. Most of these guys have changed my life since I started this team in GRAND-AM. Like I said, we are not going anywhere, we’ll be gone for now, but definitely not forever. Taking next year to step back and focus on our IndyCar program will be important for us as a team.”

Mike Shank on signing Rosenqvist

NTT IndyCar Series team co-owner Mike Shank joins RACER’s Marshall Pruett to provide insights on the signing of Felix Rosenqvist, the goals he’s established for the Swede, and more.

Rosenqvist signs multiyear IndyCar deal with Meyer Shank Racing

Meyer Shank Racing will return next season with an all-new driver lineup led by Felix Rosenqvist, who steps into the No. 60 Honda as teammate to IndyCar rookie Tom Blomqvist, who will pilot the No. 06 Honda. The Swede, who got his IndyCar start with …

The Swede, who got his IndyCar start with Chip Ganassi Racing where he won his first race at Road America in 2020, brings four poles, five podiums, and more than 75 races of experience to MSR across five seasons of IndyCar competition. To date, his best championship finish is sixth with CGR, and he backed it up with a run to eighth for Arrow McLaren in 2022.

“I’m super excited to start the next chapter of my IndyCar career together with MSR,” Rosenqvist said. “This will be a great opportunity for myself and MSR to elevate and get to the next level together. I’m also pretty excited to get to work with my old friend Tom again. I’m ready to start working together and getting the next season started.”

Next year’s IndyCar season will see MSR complete a total reset with an all-new driver lineup as the Ohio-based team sets its sights on a successful 2024 season and beyond.

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“We’re very excited to have our 2024 IndyCar plans finalized and to welcome Felix to the team,” said co-owner Mike Shank. “Felix has been someone that has been on our radar for quite some time now and everything lined up this year to work something out with him. It’s no secret that we’ve had a difficult season, with some things out of our control and some things in our control.

“I think we are all looking forward to resetting completely, starting over and getting to work. I think Tom and Felix will work great together and really feed off of each other. We will also have Helio with us at every race to provide his feedback and advice which will be an added bonus, so I think we’re in for a solid year ahead.”

Rosenqvist replaces Simon Pagenaud, who continues to recover from a bad crash in June that has left him with lingering concussion symptoms. Blomqvist replaces Helio Castroneves in a full-time role; the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner has taken an ownership stake in the team and will compete in a third MSR Honda at the next two Indy 500s.

Although Pagenaud’s time with MSR in IndyCar is done, Shank told RACER he remains committed to assisting the former IndyCar champion and Indy 500 winner when he’s ready to resume his driving duties.

“If I can help him going forward, I will for sure, whether that’s here, sports car, or any other thing we end up getting into,” he said. “[But] I don’t think by any means he’s done with racing.”

Pagenaud thanked the team for the opportunity that began in 2022.

“I would like to wish MSR all the best, and thank Mike Shank, Jim Meyer and the whole team for the valuable experiences I’ve gathered through the last two years,” he wrote. “I wish we could have achieved more together over the last two seasons and win races, but we could not make it happen.

“For now, my goal is to fully focus on myself and recuperating. It is a slow process, and I will continue to work with the doctors and do what is necessary to get my health back to 100%.”

IndyCar silly season update: Tracking the twists and qvists

As RACER told you a few weeks ago, Linus Lundqvist was headed to Chip Ganassi Racing and that’s been confirmed in Thursday’s announcement of the Swede’s multi-year deal to backfill Marcus Ericsson’s seat. The Swede-for-Swede swap was made easier by …

The Swede-for-Swede swap was made easier by the fact that Ganassi offered Ericsson a deal to stay and be paid for the first time in his career — which he rejected and chose to sign with Andretti Autosport. With funding in place for Ericsson to stay in the No. 8 Honda and the ability to sign Lundqvist at a rookie rate to the entry that was meant for the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner, a perfect scenario presented itself to the team to sign the reigning Indy Lights champion and bring more young talent into the organization.

With Scott Dixon, 43, as the longstanding team leader, having Alex Palou (26), Lundqvist (24), and Marcus Armstrong (23) as its next lineup gives Ganassi a long runway with next-generation drivers and the best driver of his generation to mentor them while chasing more championships.

Meyer Shank Racing, which ran Lundqvist for the last three races, was keen to sign him after the August 12 Brickyard Grand Prix event where Lundqvist started and finished 12th. It’s believed MSR had an option on Lundqvist and wanted to hold onto him for 2024, but Ganassi entered the frame immediately after the race and is said to have made Lundqvist an offer that would have been hard for MSR to match. From there, Lundqvist cleared the right-to-match period and was brought into the title-leading team for 2024 and beyond.

On the MSR front, there’s an increasing belief it will have Felix Rosenqvist moving across from Arrow McLaren to lead the retooling team. Rosenqvist won’t be returning to his current team, which isn’t a shocking development, and he’s had half the grid express interest in hiring him, but I’m told by a growing segment of the paddock that MSR has won the Rosenqvist sweepstakes.

Will a Rosenqvist move open an Arrow McLaren option for Malukas? Josh Tons/Motorsport Images

Directly related to Rosenqvist’s Arrow McLaren departure, the same high volume of paddock intel says David Malukas will be driving the No. 6 Chevy when we return next year. Malukas and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Callum Ilott were said to be Arrow McLaren’s top picks for the seat, but with the rumored link coming between the teams to brand Ilott’s No. 77 Chevy as a satellite McLaren entry, the Zak Brown-led organization could end up with both drivers — one directly on the payroll and the other through business ties with JHR — in the family.

Take a moment to consider all of the places the silly season has taken us in recent weeks, and the latest developments are simply remarkable. Lundqvist, with two fastest laps and best finish of 12th to his name from his three MSR races, will show up to work as the newest employee at IndyCar’s best team of 2023 and have the best driver of the last three decades and the best driver of the current decade as his teachers.

And Malukas, with two podiums in two seasons for one of the series’ perennial underdogs, is awaiting confirmation at IndyCar’s richest team alongside an Indianapolis 500 winner in Alexander Rossi and one of the fiercest title challengers in the business in Pato O’Ward.

If I said at the beginning of the season that we’d have Lundqvist signed by Chip Ganassi and Malukas signed by Zak Brown, IndyCar would have yanked my hard card and sent me to the hospital for a full evaluation. And yet, here we are, with two amazing kids readying themselves for the biggest opportunities of their lives.

There’s more to share, but let’s savor what’s in motion with Lundqvist, Rosenqvist and Malukas, and reconvene next week ahead of the season finale in Monterey for some of the other developments that are taking place.

Blomqvist to finish IndyCar season in MSR’s No. 60

Simon Pagenaud’s ongoing recovery from the concussion he suffered at the Mid-Ohio NTT IndyCar Series race will keep the Frenchman out of the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing cockpit for the remainder of the season. Pagenaud continues to seek clearance to …

In his place, MSR’s IMSA champion Tom Blomqvist, who will step up to IndyCar next year in a full-time role in the No. 06 MSR Honda, will pilot the No. 60 at Portland International Raceway and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. It will mark Blomqvist’s second and third appearances in the No. 60 after standing in for Pagenaud at Toronto in July.

The news is unfortunate for Pagenaud, whose contract with MSR is up at the end of the season and will be unable to race before entering free agency.

For Blomqvist, September becomes busier than expected as the September 1-3 Portland event and the Sept. 8-10 race in Monterey will now precede his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Indianapolis on Sept. 15-17 in the hybrid No. 60 MSR Acura ARX-06 GTP.

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“Obviously the circumstances are quite tricky with Simon’s recovery and the whole situation surrounding the 60 car – I know the whole team and myself included are thinking about him as he recovers,” Blomqvist said. “I’ve got to thank Jim (Meyer) and Mike (Shank) for getting me in the car and looking ahead now to next season having been confirmed to drive with MSR next year.

“It’s a good thing to be getting these races under my belt before the season and working in preparation for my full program in 2024. I got a brief test in Toronto under very challenging circumstances – without any real preparation whatsoever.”

Blomqvist takes over from Linus Lundqvist, who helmed the No. 60 for the last three rounds and did well enough to attract the Chip Ganassi Racing team’s interest for 2024. For Blomqvist, the chance to gain more mileage and experience will be invaluable as he readies himself for the open-wheel challenge that lies ahead.

“Now I’ve got a little bit more understanding and knowledge and I’m hoping it’s going to be easier this time. I’m going to have the opportunity to get into the simulator and I know a little bit more of what to expect in terms of the way the weekend runs. I don’t know Portland at all and I know everyone has been racing flat-out in the summer. It’s still going to be an absolutely huge challenge.

“The series is so, so competitive and I am still new to these cars. I’m not putting any pressure on myself and I’m just going to go out there and do my best. Hopefully I can do Mike and Jim proud and make progress with every session. Hopefully after these next two events I can be happy and put in some strong performances and go into winter break with more knowledge on the series and be able to build on this.”

Lundqvist to make IndyCar oval debut with Meyer Shank at WWTR

Linus Lundqvist will make his NTT IndyCar Series oval debut this weekend at World Wide Technologies Raceway in his third consecutive race as Simon Pagenaud’s stand-in with the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda. Lundqvist, the 2022 Indy Lights …

Lundqvist, the 2022 Indy Lights champion, completed his rookie oval test earlier in the year at the big 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway facility with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and placed second at WWTR last year in Indy Lights. At the recent Indianapolis road course race that was part of NASCAR’s Brickyard event, Lundqvist earned the No. 60’s best finish of the season with a clean run to 12th.

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“I’m extremely happy to be joining MSR again in St. Louis this weekend,” Lundqvist said. “The last few weekends in Nashville and at Indy have been the time of my life and I can’t wait to continue to work with this team. We’ve been through some challenging race formats — Nashville a street course, Indy a road course, and now St. Louis, an oval. I will be learning once again.

“I know that it is going to be tough and tricky, but I know the team is going to give me a good car to have a solid result like we had at Indy. I’m also very much looking forward to working with Helio (Castroneves) as a teammate. Working with him on an oval is something that every driver would want to do and I’m just going to learn from it as much as I can this weekend.”

As RACER recently revealed, Lundqvist is expected to be confirmed as a new Chip Ganassi Racing driver for 2024, having used his performances with MSR as the springboard to draw the interest of the championship-leading team.

Shank “doing everything we can” to stay in IMSA beyond 2023

Meyer Shank Racing team principal Mike Shank admits that the team’s plans for competition in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship are still up in the air. “I don’t know what the odds are,” he said of his chances for remaining in the series …

Meyer Shank Racing team principal Mike Shank admits that the team’s plans for competition in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship are still up in the air.

“I don’t know what the odds are,” he said of his chances for remaining in the series beyond this season. “They float. It goes from 50-50 to 80 percent right now. It’s coming down to the last minute, which I don’t like a lot. That’s the way it is right now.”

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Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian, as well as drivers Colin Braun and Tom Blomqvist, would be leading the GTP championship had they not been docked 200 points following the revelation that the team manipulated tire pressure data in its Rolex 24 at Daytona win. A couple of months after the tire pressure issue was revealed, Acura announced that its other team, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport, will be campaigning two Acura ARX-06s next season. Acura gave no indication that it intends to have three cars in the championship, and Shank’s comments gives clear signal that he doesn’t expect to be racing an Acura next season.

“We’re still working on that,” he said. “[The plans are] up in the air right now. Those guys, through our tough January, have battled back and they’re in the championship again, which is unbelievable. You put those points back on the board and they’ve checked out on the championship.

“We don’t know yet, is the answer. We’ll know probably in four to five weeks. This is my 20th year as a team in the Rolex. We’ve won it three times. We’ve had much success. It was kind of the start of all this. We’re doing everything we can to stay on.”

Without a factory deal, the only current option for a privateer is Porsche’s 963, which JDC-Miller Motorsports and Proton Competition are running in the WeatherTech Championship. Alpine has also expressed the possibility of having a customer racing its new LMDh car in IMSA.

If Meyer Shank does put together a new IMSA program for 2024 it will be without Blomqvist, who is moving across to the team’s No.06 IndyCar next year.

Mike Shank and Tom Blomqvist on their 2024 IndyCar plans

Team owner Mike Shank and Tom Blomqvist, his new IndyCar driver for 2024, join RACER’s Marshall Pruett to share insights about why he’s being elevated from Meyer Shank Racing’s IMSA program and what the opportunity means to the prototype champion. …

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Blomqvist gets full-time MSR IndyCar drive for 2024 as Castroneves goes Indy 500-only

Helio Castroneves will transition from his role as a full-time NTT IndyCar Series driver for Meyer Shank Racing into a new ambassadorial position for MSR that includes an ownership stake in the team and a seat in a third MSR entry at the 2024 and …

With his four Indy 500 wins, including his triumph at the Speedway for MSR in 2021, the Brazilian will complete the year in the No. 06 Honda before handing the reins to MSR’s defending IMSA prototype champion Tom Blomqvist (pictured above), who becomes the team’s first confirmed driver for the 2024 season.

For the 48-year-old Castroneves, the transition will complete a full-time IndyCar career that began in the former CART IndyCar Series in 1998 with the Bettenhausen Racing team. His open-wheel stardom took flight after joining Team Penske in 2000 where he became a perennial title contender and win dozens of races and poles along with three Indy 500s. A detour to sports car racing with Penske delivered his first major championship in 2020 in IMSA’s DPi class in a factory Acura ARX-05 prototype, but a rebirth in IndyCar was not offered.

A chance to continue in IndyCar with MSR in 2021 produced the team’s maiden win in the series at the biggest event of all and elevated Castroneves to the exclusive four-time Indy winner’s club. His full-time status was regained in 2022 alongside fellow former Penske driver Simon Pagenaud where he’s delivered four top-10 finishes in the No. 06 car.

“I want to thank Mike, Jim and Liberty for accepting me as part of the ownership group,” said Castroneves (pictured above). “Throughout my career I’ve been very fortunate to surround myself with an amazing group of people and this journey will be my next chapter and I can’t wait for that. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a lot of fuel to burn inside in terms of driving and I will do that at the Indy 500 as I continue my pursuit of the ‘Drive for Five.’”

In Blomqvist, a nice piece of symmetry is found in his elevation to IndyCar where — like Castroneves — it comes on the back of winning the IMSA DPi championship using the same Acura ARX-05 model. The 29-year-old who was born in England and raised in both the UK and New Zealand, has one of the deepest backgrounds of any incoming IndyCar rookie.

The son of Swedish rallying champion Stig Blomqvist was a race-winning standout on the European open-wheel ladder, placing second behind Alpine Formula 1 driver Esteban Ocon and ahead of current world champion Max Verstappen in the 2014 FIA Euro Formula 3 series, but was diverted to the German DTM silhouette championship as a factory driver for BMW when opportunities to reach Formula 2 did not materialize.

Blomqvist raced in the FIA World Endurance Championship in LMP2 and GTE-Pro along with FIA Formula E and IMSA’s GT Le Mans category with BMW in the intervening years. A call from Shank leading into 2022 with a stated need of leading MSR’s IMSA DPi program turned into a perfect fit for the team and driver.

With Blomqvist given instructions to attack at all times, two giant wins at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Petit Le Mans — along with five other podiums from 10 races — delivered the 2022 DPi title for the team and Acura with support from co-driver Oliver Jarvis and endurance teammates Castroneves and Pagenaud.

“Firstly I would like to say a huge thank you to Mike and Jim and all the partners — AutoNation, SiriusXM, Arctic Wolf, Clopay and Cleveland-Cliffs — for believing in me and giving me this opportunity,” said Blomqvist. “It’s been a good ride the last two years in IMSA, but I’ve been itching to make the step up to IndyCar and this is an opportunity I’m eager and motivated to make the most of. IndyCar is an incredibly competitive series and I’m under no illusions in how difficult this championship can be, but I am extremely motivated to make the most of this exciting new challenge.”

Paired this year with Colin Braun, the two have claimed two more wins and stood on the podium in four of seven rounds. Based on everything he’s seen Blomqvist do in MSR’s wickedly fast Acura DPi and the new hybrid Acura ARX-06 GTP machine, Shank and co-owner Jim Meyer knew Blomqvist was going to be their new IndyCar driver many months ago.

“We are thrilled to bring Tom over to our IndyCar program full-time starting next year, and to be able to keep Helio as a key part of our program moving forward and go for a fifth Indianapolis 500 victory next year,” said Mike Shank. “I feel like all the planets aligned for us to be able to do this, so I’m really grateful for us to be making this next step as a team. Helio brings so much to what we do overall as a team, both in terms of our competition package and all of his experience, as well as how he’s able to engage with our partners. So having him transition to this role is really exciting for everyone involved.”

Blomqvist is scheduled to complete his first oval test immediately after the season finale in Monterey, which would make him eligible for all forms of IndyCar competition in 2024.