Yahoo Autos 2024 IndyCar form guide: Meyer Shank Racing
MEYER SHANK RACING
No. 60 Honda: Felix Rosenqvist (12th in 2023 championship with Arrow McLaren)
No. 66 Honda: Tom Blomqvist (rookie)
Mean streets
The last two seasons haven’t been kind to Meyer Shank Racing. In losing Jack Harvey to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing after 2021 and going full-time with Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud in 2022, the team’s grand expectations for the ex-Penske drivers were never met. We know about Pagenaud’s genuinely sad ending to his season last year with the brake failure and giant crash at Mid-Ohio, but there were underlying issues long before that happened.
In the team’s technical alliance with Andretti Global where chassis setup info, dampers, and race engineers are supplied for both MSR cars, Andretti’s downturn in performance in 2022 and again in 2023 was also felt by MSR. Andretti’s cars have been quick in preseason testing, and the same goes for MSR, so whatever was missing over the last two years just might have been found, and that should improve the fortunes of newcomer Felix Rosenqvist and the returning rookie Tom Blomqvist.
Rosenqvist has Dave Seyffert as Andretti’s returning race engineer for the No. 60, and Blomqvist has Andretti’s Ron Barhorst, who made his IndyCar race engineering debut last year with Devlin DeFrancesco, in charge of the No. 66.
It’s been a long, long time since driver talent could compensate for setup shortcomings — where trying harder and taking big risks would reduce the gap — but that isn’t really possible with a chassis that’s been around since 2012 where the difference between first and last is a tiny amount of time. MSR’s drivers will go as well as their cars allow, but there’s also a lot for the team to clean up under its tent, and on pit lane, that has nothing to do with Andretti.
And that’s another area of optimism for MSR. It didn’t want to step away from IMSA for the year, but they’ve had no choice after Acura consolidated its GTP programs under the WTRAndretti banner. Mike Shank and Jim Meyer have kept the entire IMSA team on the payroll — with the hope of returning to IMSA in 2025 — so in the meantime, plenty of its championship-winning sports car crew members have been sprinkled into the IndyCar program.
In recent years, MSR’s IndyCar outfit has been a fixture in the midfield, unable to reach its potential, while over in IMSA, MSR was one of the big teams that was hard to beat. Bringing some of the people and that winning culture from IMSA over to IndyCar should make for a better and cleaner season, and if the technical alliance is paying dividends, MSR should get back to their pre-2022 form and make a noticeable impression on the championship.
Rosenqvist is ready to embrace the role of team leader. Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment
The Felix factor
The Arrow McLaren team loved Felix Rosenqvist. His prior team, Chip Ganassi Racing, also loved Felix. At Ganassi, he was the No. 2 to Scott Dixon and at Arrow McLaren, he was the No. 2 to Pato O’Ward. Entering his sixth IndyCar season, the 32-year-old from Sweden is the No. 1 driver for the first time in his career, and he’s primed to thrive in that position.
Castroneves and Pagenaud were leaders within the MSR due to their past accomplishments and tenure in the sport. But it’s hard to point to the Brazilian or the Frenchman and say either fully embraced a team leader role all year long. That’s been the difference here with Rosenqvist, who is a regular presence at the shop, on Zoom calls, and is taking an active role in any and all areas he can find. This is someone who wants to lead, speak loudly when necessary, offer support and guidance to Blomqvist, and whose playful-but-serious personality is a wonderful fit for MSR.
He’s the right guy arriving at the right time for this team.
Tommy Blom in bloom
Blomqvist’s unexpected call-up to fill in for the injured Pagenaud at a few IndyCar races last year presented the 30-year-old Briton with a physical issue to address during the offseason. The 2022 IMSA DPi champion was sports car-fit, but not IndyCar-fit, and with a lot more downforce to wrangle in an Indy car that doesn’t have power steering, Blomqvist’s core and arms were burning wrecks after some of the races.
So he went to work and put on nine pounds of muscle, increasing his body weight by 6.2 percent from 143 pounds to 152 pounds, all to help his ability to mount sustained attacks against the steering wheel for an entire race.
Hello Helio
And don’t forget we have Castroneves, the ageless 48-year-old, who’s take a minority ownership role with MSR, will be trackside throughout the season working with sponsors and mentoring the drivers, and resuming his “Drive for 5” at the Indy 500 in a third entry.
