Rosenqvist’s race ends early with a mechanical issue, finishes 23rd
Toronto, Ontario (21 July 2024) – David Malukas emerged from a chaotic final 10 laps to score a strong sixth-place finish in Sunday’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto, giving the team its first top-10 finish since the first week of June.
Malukas (No. 66 SiriusXM Honda) turned a season-best starting spot (6th) into his best finish of the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, climbing up from 12th at one point to finish sixth – just three seconds behind the race winner.
The result was the first top-10 of the year not only for Malukas but for the No. 66 MSR car and is the best finish for Malukas on a road or street course since he finished sixth at Mid-Ohio a year ago. He deftly picked his way through some of the late-race carnage gaining a handful spots through two caution flags over the final 11 laps to secure the team’s sixth top-10 result of the year.
Meanwhile another promising day for Felix Rosenqvist (No. 60 SiriusXM Honda) went unfulfilled as the Swedish driver retired due to an issue with his hybrid system. Rosenqvist started third and ran in the top five through the first two rounds of pit stops. A lock up midway through the race pushed him down the running order but Rosenqvist recovered and was fighting back before the mechanical issue ended his day and left to finish 23rd.
With a stretch of four races in three weeks now behind them, MSR will have three weeks away from the track to prepare for the final five races of the season. The field rounds the clubhouse turn and hits the homestretch with the August 17 Bommarito Automotive Group 500, held on the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway oval just outside St. Louis.
Meyer Shank Racing Driver Quotes:
David Malukas: “The race was going pretty smoothly up until those last 20-laps. It was up, down, left right and we still managed to finish where we started. I think from my side there’s a lot to learn. With it being mid-season, the rest of the drivers have learned a lot more coming into this weekend when it comes to the raecraft. Every single race I have been doing is just a lot of learning. Overall it’s been a big positive, we finally got our first top-ten finish and it feels really good. It feels like this is where we need to be for the rest of the season and we’ll take this into Gateway.”
Felix Rosenqvist: “I’m super bummed, as things were looking good all weekend. The (hybrid) system wasn’t working, so I had to come in because you can’t run around out there without it working. We hoped to get it fixed and get back out to grab a couple more points, since those will be important later in the season but it didn’t work out.”