LONG BEACH, Calif., (13 April 2025) – Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) used clutch pit work and a strong late race drive from Felix Rosenqvist to cap a run of three consecutive top-10 results to start the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season with a fourth-place finish at Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Rosenqvist has carded a trio of top-10 finishes to start the season for the second straight year for MSR, capping that with a season-best result today on the 1.968-mile Long Beach street course. The run moved the Swede into fourth place in the provisional series points after three races and marked the ninth top-10 for Rosenqvist since joining Ohio-based MSR prior to the 2024 campaign.
Starting fourth, the driver of the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda vaulted into third on the opening lap and threatened to score the team’s first podium of the year with 22 laps to go. Fighting with the No. 7 car into the day’s final trip down Pit Lane, MSR answered with a lightning-quick stop that gave Rosenqvist a five-second lead over the fourth-place driver for the day’s final stint.
Unfortunately, a 40-second deficit in push-to-pass power saw Rosenqvist’s lead shrink over the waning laps and while he fought hard to keep the advantage, he was eventually forced him to yield and settle for the fourth-place result.
His teammate Marcus Armstrong (No. 66 Root Insurance Honda) fought back after equipment troubles on his first pit stop of the day and finished 14th after starting seventh. He led a lap during the early flurry of pit stops, marking the second time in the first three races that the newest MSR pilot has led the event.
MSR will have a couple of weeks to prepare for the relatively open spaces of Barber Motorsports Park outside of Birmingham, Alabama as the series heads to the 2.3-mile permanent road course for the Children’s Grand Prix of Alabama on May 4.
Meyers Shank Racing Driver Quotes:
Felix Rosenqvist: “Honestly it’s a solid start to the year in points. I kind of feel like we gave Christian (Lundgaard) a present. We had an issue with our fuel metering so, then we had a massive save suddenly. Then in the end we were actually like ‘we didn’t need to save’ then we were flat out. So it was kind of frustrating that we just gave it to him, a podium is a podium you know so, I think it stinks extra. At the end of the day it’s a couple of points and in the grand scheme of things it’s a pretty good day.”
Marcus Armstrong: “I think we did everything right apart from the easy stuff I think. We were fast. I’m not sure, but I think we fell back to 22nd on the pit stop and then we made our way back to fourteenth. The car actually felt really strong. Part way through the stint I was wondering how my teammate was doing because I felt like the car was really good.”